The hip-hop culture was already dying in plain view but
rap saw its peak in the 90’s. For the first time “beef” was recognized by American pop-culture and saw the legendary so-called feud between Biggie’s cruel subliminal lyrics and Tupac’s foolish misrepresentation of his actual personality – selling more records than opinions. Ghetto poetry became a larger part of the composition process, leaving behind the awkward social commentary of the 80’s and replacing it with
niggaz be runnin’ through the block shootin’…true story. Gangsta rap was about to explode and Nas somehow knew it, and as a result the East Coast’s alleged magnum opus was inked up by some Queens teen who could battle like a samurai. “Illmatic” would become one of rap’s finest achievements and you can’t deny its influence even if you hate it. Mixing the ostentatious melody of Rakim and all of his favorite big words, Nas dropped a hype bomb and the mushroom cloud is still there. Sure he claims that he doesn’t want to make another record like that twice and that’s why nothing he wrote after this recalls the style but I think he was just trying to deal with the pressure of besting what many consider to be the greatest rap album of all time. I don’t blame him though; a sequel to “Illmatic” would be boring as hell – it was so conclusive, like it’s just one part of the lesson plan.
Now that’s all been said, “Illmatic” is overrated. It’s like fine catering at a trailer park bash. During the time of its release rap had never heard something so extraordinary and lyrically concentrated. Back in the day before this record, rap was essentially dance music – quite recently evolved from scratch DJs the genre was trying to grasp a niche and it found the stage performance. Rockin’ the M.I.C. was more about making the crowd move; hip-hop has always been extremely communal and without audience participation in your act you were a nobody, you belonged in a dim poetry café with them white boyz. The majority didn’t appreciate rap’s deeper side, and even though it was there, its artistry was the physical way it moved you and not emotionally. Then Nasir Jones came around with these subterranean beats that were actually catchy and a slew of pseudo-philosophical verses that sounded better than they were because of Nas’ precise delivery. Kind of like Method Man, the guy who can turn a totally, completely average sixteen bars into that tune stuck in your head for weeks. Sure, Nas’ poetry is a bit more fertile than your typical rapper’s but the thing that bothers me is his tendency to express the same old stuff with different words, and while I admit that gangsta rap was still young in 1994, a classic scoffs at the test of time and this simply can’t.
Despite “Illmatic” being Nasty’s finest work yet, from time to time the rapper can’t shake off his repetitive bad habits. He always opens his songs strongly and out of all my favorite lyrics, most if not all of them occur in the first verse of whatever track they’re on, sometimes even within his first couple bars. As these songs progress he develops a stifled flow and the complex lyricism make it both difficult and tiring to care what he’s saying. For a guy so famous on account of his words he could use a class or two. I usually knock a rap song down a few points if I have to look for the lyrics on paper, on screen or whatever to understand them. When I found the lyrics for “Illmatic” I realized that Nas isn’t as innovative as many people say, not even for his time. Comparing Nas to rappers like Ghostface Killah, Slug, Scarface and others is similar to the key difference between J.K. Rowling and Ernest Hemingway: substance. No matter how enjoyable and elegant her writing is, it’s only that. Harry Potter never exemplified the apathy a depressed man feels as death creeps up on him (Snows of Kilimanjaro or maybe Scarface's "Seen A Man Die"). I’m not saying it had to, but that’s why no educated reader puts those two authors in the same sentence (except for me).
Memory Lane starts off promisingly: “I rap for listeners, blunt heads, fly ladies and prisoners/Hennessy holders and old school niggas” but soon enough even that concoction mixes with the generic formula, leaving
One Love and
Represent as the only “Illmatic” songs that don’t. I’m not saying there’s something wrong with these lyrics, they’re great, just too...normal. And besides, halfway through almost each song I can’t even remember what the guy is talking about.
Still, in a rhythmic sense this album is brilliant. A marvel of consistency too, not one “bad” track. It doesn’t hurt that a couple of the best rap songs ever are in the lineup,
It Ain’t Hard To Tell for example, and
N.Y. State of Mind. Each producer came through nicely; “Illmatic” embodies the East Coast cultural rap beat with its laid-back, lazy sound which doesn’t match up too well with Nas’ aggressive rapping style (here’s what would: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lzQ0h7xpavg) save for a few songs, but on their own these instrumentals rock. DJ Premier, Pete Rock, Large Professor and even Q-Tip of A Tribe Called Quest fame contributed their production skills.
Represent’s chime and the pulsating bass line on
N.Y. State of Mind shows just how much these beats rely on small melodies to make them awesome. But what really makes this record
great is when Nas carries a song all the way through – it seems he was struggling with his own technique on “Illmatic”, like he hadn’t learned how to rap just yet but he’d have these peak moments that show up a few times throughout the album and while rare, they balance out the colorless standard of the rest.
Nas is one of those one-album-wonders so to speak, not in terms of publicity and revenue but his most potent musical ventures are on this record and his failure to follow up is both sad but true. Regardless, I think you’ll enjoy “Illmatic”, it means no harm and it’s a piece of history to boot – without it, conventional rap may have evolved in a completely different way. Nas took the underground into the mainstream and he is a legend for doing so; the rap game’s Kurt Cobain.
