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...it's needed.

I mean, he wrote Illmatic aged 18. Lyrics like

"Life is parallel to Hell but I must maintain
and be prosperous, though we live dangerous
cops could just arrest me, blamin us, we're held like hostages
It's only right that I was born to use mics
and the stuff that I write, is even tougher than dice
I'm takin rappers to a new plateau, through rap slow
My rhymin is a vitamin, Hell without a capsule
The smooth criminal on beat breaks
Never put me in your box if your shit eats tapes
The city never sleeps, full of villians and creeps
That's where I learned to do my hustle had to scuffle with freaks
I'ma addict for sneakers, twenties of buddah and bitches with beepers
In the streets I can greet ya, about blunts I teach ya
Inhale deep like the words of my breath
I never sleep, cause sleep is the cousin of death
I lay puzzle as I backtrack to earlier times
Nothing's equivalent, to the new york state of mind"

I mean come on, that's sick...

Never worked a day in his life and self-educated.

The man deserves massive appreciation.

THE

FUCKIN

MAN!!!!!!!!!

Samuel Sifter wrote:Never worked a day in his life and self-educated.

The man deserves massive appreciation.

Massive appreciation?

'Never worked a day in his life'

???

Fucking Lazy tnuc....

The Mike Tyson of the 90s.

Interpret that as you will.

illmatic = best rap album of all time..

Nas, the guy is a legend, a genius, by far the best rapper ever in my opinion..

the only problem is that he keeps choosing wack ass beats for his albums..

stillmatic = one of the great comeback albums.

NR wrote:stillmatic = one of the great comeback albums.

Agreed.

Also, I'm seriously under the consideration that Nas undermined the 90's 'classic' era. Go with me for a second; there was a simple rule, you had the MC, and his team in the background. KRS-BDP, CL-Pete, Guru-Premier, etc. etc. But Illmatic is most noted not for Nas' main dude who made beats (The ever inessential LES), but for all the Premo, Pete Rock, Q-Tip and whomever else cuts. In a way, it set the tone for producers going maverick and just pitching out their beats to anyone with money, which stifled a lot of creativity in my book.

CrowleyHead wrote:But Illmatic is most noted not for Nas' main dude who made beats (The ever inessential LES), but for all the Premo, Pete Rock, Q-Tip and whomever else cuts. In a way, it set the tone for producers going maverick and just pitching out their beats to anyone with money, which stifled a lot of creativity in my book.

yeah but on the other hand it opens up new possibilities since u see different producers teaming up with different mcs.. which leads to a variety of styles.. it would be kinda boring if u only heard an mc rap on beats produced by a certain producer/team of producers in everyone of his albums

the world is yours is a personal favourite.

He's a nice MC. I can understand why people think Illmatic is the best hip-hop album ever, but for me personally (and I wouldn't be surprised if you all disagree), Madvillainy is my personal favorite of all time.

Nas is still excellent in his own right, and Illmatic is amazing, especially since he was only 18 when he made it. Talented dude.

THE BEST

Tkun wrote:He's a nice MC. I can understand why people think Illmatic is the best hip-hop album ever, but for me personally (and I wouldn't be surprised if you all disagree), Madvillainy is my personal favorite of all time.

Madvillainy is legendary. Fancy Clown is my favorite hip-hop song of all time.

Interesting article about Illmatic here; 'Deconstructing Illmatic'........

http://www.ohword.com/blog/926/deconstructing-illmatic

Samuel Sifter wrote:

Tkun wrote:He's a nice MC. I can understand why people think Illmatic is the best hip-hop album ever, but for me personally (and I wouldn't be surprised if you all disagree), Madvillainy is my personal favorite of all time.

Madvillainy is legendary. Fancy Clown is my favorite hip-hop song of all time.

"...thats what they all say/ you wasn't sorry when you sucked him off in the hallway"

LOL when i used to write rhymes, he was constantly my reference point.

The great thing about Illmatic is how scaled down it was. 9 cuts....no filler....no room for fuck-upery.

It Was Written - received a lot of hate as not being "Illmatic 2", but the way I see it, it is was a perfect balance of street-wise lyricism and the more flossy sort of shit that would become prevelant from '96 on.

I Am...another favourite, "I Wanna Talk To You", "NY State of Mind pt. 2", "Small World" (one of my FAVOURITE Nas joints), "Nas Is Like", "Ghetto Prisoners"....can't fuck with it. Even the track with DMX was dope. He might have been hungrier with Illmatic, but I can't think how many times I replayed entire tracks just cuz you were forced to think more on what he's saying. Too bad it got bootlegged cuz there woulda been some better tracks (like one with Wu-Tang that I havent heard til this day)

Nastradamus - I'll admit, some of this is ABSOLUTE garbage, but I bumped the shit out of this album as well. rofl, some are so lame it's enjoyabe like, "Quiet ******", "You Owe Me", "Shoot Em Up" (fuckin Christmas carol hip-hop lol, and the one with Prodigy...."The Family" or whatever.

The Lost Tapes - As far as I'm concerned, this album not only surpasses Illmatic, but almost every other album in his career. This was the original I Am (essentially). DEEP.

Stillmatic - we all can agree that this was one hell of a fucking comeback...it also helped he re-released this record minus the Bravehearts joint.


I was gonna go in depth into all his albums along withincluding God's Son, Street's Disciple , and Hip-Hop is Dead, and ******...but I'm tired lol

commodore keith wrote:the world is yours is a personal favourite.

lost tapes aswell, massive album. lost tapes 2 was supposed to be out about 4 years ago...

haven't got on this yet but it might interest some of you...

http://www.nappyafro.com/2009/04/13/tra ... -download/

He should have retired after Illmatic. The perfect album. Apart from his verse on Verbal Intercourse he has never touched the heights of Illmatic, though to be fair the shite beats havent helped

MiscreanT wrote:Massive appreciation?

'Never worked a day in his life'

???

Fucking Lazy tnuc....

He's lazy because he is able to make a living off something he loves doing and doesn't consider it work? Ok... I guess you have a different definition of lazy than I do.