Illmatic

Product Information

Contains sample from "Smilin' Billy Suite Pt. II" as performed by The Heath Brothers and written by J. Heath.

Hip-hop was a teenager when Illmatic dropped*.* Old enough for biblical foundation, but young enough to be embroiled in an early identity crisis. The Columbia press sheet that accompanies it opens: "While it's sad that there's so much frontin' in the rap world today, this should only make us sit up and pay attention when a rapper comes along who's not about milking the latest trend and running off with the loot."

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Life's A Bitch" recorded and mixed at Unique Studios and Chung King Studios, NYC. Contains sample from "Yearning For Your Love" as performed by The Gap Band and written by R. Wilson and O. Scott used courtesy Polygram Special Products, Inc. Ill Will Music, Inc./Skematics Music/Minder Music (USA) (ASCAP)/Taking Care Of Business Music/Total Experience Music Publishing Co. (BMI) If you listen to it enough names start to pop out: Fatcat, Alpo, Grand Wizard, Mayo, the foul cop who shot Garcia, Jerome's niece, Little Rob, Herb, Ice, and Bullet. The entirety of "Represent". You start to wonder where they are now, or if they are. The album's lone guest AZ, lays it down flat: he's destined to live the dream for all the peeps who never made it.

Illmatic is often hailed as the best hip hop album of all time, and deservedly so. The first thing that can be (review of Illmatic only) Large Professor Music Ltd./EMI April Music, Inc./Ill Will Music, Inc./Skematics Music/Minder Music (USA) (ASCAP) B3 - Produced by The Large Professor for Paul Sea Productions, Inc.. Recorded and mixed at Chung King Studios, NYC. Contains sample from "Walter L" as written by G. Burton. The recording of the concert itself sounds amateurish. Orchestra is way too quiet, has no presence, no depth, no imaging. The vocals are boomy, and twice as loud as the music. Defeats the purpose of the entire event if the instruments never shine through. B4 - Produced by DJ Premier for Works Of Mart Productions. Recorded and mixed at D&D Recording, NYC.The enduring vision of Nas: a baby-faced Buddha monk in public housing, scribbling lotto dreams and grim reaper nightmares in dollar notebooks, words enjambed in the margins. The only light is the orange glow of a blunt, bodega liquor, and the adolescent rush of first creation. Sometimes his pen taps the paper and his brain blanks. In the next sentence, he remembers dark streets and the noose. B2 - Produced by Q-Tip for A Tribe Called Quest, Inc.. Recorded and mixed at Battery Studios, NYC. Contains sample from "Smilin Billy Suite Pt. II" as performed by The Heath Brothers and written by J. Heath. Memory Lane (Sittin' In Da Park)" produced for Works Of Mart Productions. Recorded and mixed at D&D Recording, NYC. Side B label has, additionally: Zomba Enterprises Inc./ Jazz Merchant Music (admin. by Zomba Enterprises Inc.) N.Y. State Of Mind" produced for Works Of Mart Productions. Recorded and mixed at D&D Recording, NYC. Contains sample from "Mind Rain" as performed and written by J. Chambers. Gifted Pearl/Ill Will Music, Inc./Skematics Music (ASCAP)

B3 - Large Professor Music Ltd. / EMI April Music Inc. / III Will Music, Inc. / Skematics Music (ASCAP) Contains sample of "We're In Love" as performed by Reuben Wilson and written by R Wilson and P. Barsella. A5 - Produced by The Large Professor for Paul Sea Productions, Inc.. Recorded and mixed at Chung King Studios, NYC. Contains samples from "Dead End,""Soul Travelin" and "School Boy Crush". This sounds insane in hindsight. When people start making greatest rapper lists you can't count to five before Nas' name is mentioned. The kid who went to hell for snuffing Jesus has become a sacred cow. Twenty years deep, he's nominated for a Grammy and is in Gap ads with his dad. There was the album with Damian Marley, the feud with Jay-Z, there was Belly. Nas is firmly entrenched in VH1 Special territory. He has crossed over enough without ever making radio hits, save for "Oochie Wally", in which he is out-rapped by his bodyguard-- all for oochie. One Time For Your Mind" produced for Paul Sea Productions, Inc. Recorded and mixed at Chung King Studios, NYC.

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I have now mastered the art of cutting them using a mixture of routers, craft knives and jewelry files. And no I do not use a laser cutter, this method would emit Chloride fumes and be very dangerous for both me and the environment

Contains a sample of "Yearning For Your Love" as performed by The Gap Band and written by R. Wilson and O. Scott. Used courtesy Polygram Special Products, Inc. May as well have been recorded in a crappy sounding arena, because you would never believe it was done in an acoustically sound amphitheatre, as it was. Thanks for supporting my small business, all made in my workshop at Papamoa Beach in the beautiful Bay Of PlentyA2 - Produced by DJ Premier for Works Of Mart Productions. Recorded and mixed at D&D Recording, NYC. Contains sample from "Mind Rain" as performed and written by J. Chambers. Represent" produced for Works Of Mart Productions. Recorded and mixed at D&D Recording, NYC. Ill Will Music, Inc./Skematics Music/DJ Premier Publishing/Gifted Pearl (ASCAP). But Nas uses Illmatic as more than a vehicle to escape. The styles and stories that formed him fuse into something that withstands outdated slang and popular taste: it is a story of a gifted writer born into squalor, trying to claw his way out of the trap. It's somewhere between The Basketball Diaries and Native Son, but Jim Carroll and Richard Wright couldn't rap like Nas. Removed from context, they seem unremarkable. When spit with criminal smoothness over beat breaks, they became iconic. If Rakim was rap's Woody Guthrie, Nas was the Dylan figure expanding the possibilities and complexity of the form, twisting old fables to match contemporary failings, faithful to tradition but unwilling to submit to orthodoxy.