Illmatic

Product Information

NY State Of Mind" produced for Works Of Mart Productions. Recorded and mixed at D&D Recording, NYC. Halftime" produced for Paul Sea Productions, Inc. Recorded and mixed at Chung King Studios, NYC. Contains samples from "Dead End", "Soul Travelin'" and "School Boy Crush". Large Professor Music Ltd./EMI April Music Inc./Ill Will Music, Inc./Skematics Music/Minder Music (USA) (ASCAP) Side B label has, additionally: Zomba Enterprises Inc./ Jazz Merchant Music (admin. by Zomba Enterprises Inc.) 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)

Contains sample of "We're In Love" as performed by Reuben Wilson and written by R Wilson and P. Barsella. Reviewing Illmatic is like someone talking about your fantasy team: no one wants to even... Yup, it's firmly embedded in Dad Rap dogma; young kids grow up wanting to hate it; and minus a few moments, it's pretty much dude specific (however, some things like this are best left for one half of the species...). Listening to Illmatic is a GOLDEN AGE MONK RITUAL. You hope your offspring will appreciate it like you do, but really you don't. You don't want them to be tortured by yet another self-imposed permanent musical marker. So when you buy this record, please listen to it when you're alone. Don't even think about throwing it on at a party or a dinner. Close the door and look at the red vinyl and imagine you're one step from an epic bloodbath... running through QB... dodging Carhartt-clad snipers chasing you in a pristine M Series sedan. Bet. 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.Memory Lane (Sittin' In Da Park)" produced for Works Of Mart Productions. Recorded and mixed at D&D Recording, NYC. The World is Yours" produced for Mecca And The Soul Brother Productions, Inc. Recorded and mixed at Battery Studios, NYC.

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. Ill Will Music, Inc./Skematics Music/Minder Music (USA) (ASCAP)/Taking Care Of Business Music/Total Experience Music Publishing Co. (BMI)

Versions

Large Professor Music Ltd./EMI April Music, Inc./Ill Will Music, Inc./Skematics Music/Minder Music (USA) (ASCAP) 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. 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). Memory Lane (Sittin' In Da Park)" produced for Works Of Mart Productions. Recorded and mixed at D&D Recording, NYC. Contains sample from "We're In Love" as performed by Reuben Wilson and written by R. Wilson and P. Barsella. EMI Unart Catalog Inc./Ill Will Music, Inc./Skematics Music/Gifted Pearl (ASCAP)