{"id":821,"date":"2014-11-04T23:11:21","date_gmt":"2014-11-04T23:11:21","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/batterymedia.com\/blog\/?p=821"},"modified":"2014-11-06T22:58:28","modified_gmt":"2014-11-06T22:58:28","slug":"rs-402-nas-illmatic","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/batterymedia.com\/blog\/?p=821","title":{"rendered":"RS #402 – Nas, Illmatic"},"content":{"rendered":"
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#402<\/dt>\n<\/dl>\n<\/div>\n

Nas,\u00a0Illmatic<\/em><\/h3>\n
Release Date:<\/span>\u00a01974<\/div>\n
First Time Listen:<\/span>\u00a0Yes<\/p>\n
\"Nas,
Illmatically speaking, nice cover<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n


\nImpressions:<\/span>\u00a0This platter is very highly-regarded by hip hop heads, but still somehow I missed the Illmatic boat. THIS WILL STAND NO LONGER… Short (40 minutes) running time bodes well. Starts off a little uneasy with\u00a0a general talking warm-up\u00a0track (“Genesis”) but gets down to business with a quickeness with a lean, moody piano-plinking “NY State of Mind,” Nas is pretty tough-minded lyrically with noirish crime tales that are presented with little fanfare (he even opens the song with\u00a0“I don’t even know how to start this shit.”) With a Spartan production by a surprising variety of producers, Illmatic’s<\/em> songs are mostly only\u00a0built\u00a0on a few samples, \u00a0but a little goes a long way in building a\u00a0cinematic atmosphere. Like the music itself, Nas isn’t that showy, but his flow is stunning. “The World is Yours” features a woozy, atmospheric piano loop\u00a0that sounds like\u00a0the sample is\u00a0going to faint, but still completely pulls you in. “One Love” has a jazzy Q-Tip production that seems like a meaner alternate-universe version of A Tribe Called Quest. If most of these tracks are\u00a0a perfect 10,\u00a0the slower, more conventional “One Time 4 Your Mind” seems like a 9.8 but I guess that’s nit-picking. Mostly, this is Grade A early ’90s East-coast hip hop\u00a0and I wonder if it would be one of my all-time favs if I had been listening to it for the last 20 years.\u00a0In a way, this album reminds me of a hip-hop version of Van Morrison’s “Moondance” in that it’s a highly-rated, deceptively simple, well-crafted\u00a0genre-expanding\u00a0masterpiece\u00a0without any fat that leaves you wanting more (not to mention neither artist\u00a0never quite topped themselves afterwards.)<\/p>\n

Starred Songs:<\/span>\u00a0“N.Y. State of Mind,” “The World Is Yours”
\n<\/span>Sneaky Track:\u00a0<\/span>“Halftime” “Memory Lane (Sittin’ in da Park)”
\nShould this be on the list:<\/span>\u00a0Yes
\nWill You Listen To This Album Again:<\/span>\u00a0Yes<\/span><\/p>\n

Summary:\u00a0<\/span>A lean,\u00a0wire-to-wire hip-hop masterpiece that has aged well and rarely been topped.<\/div>\n
Rating:<\/span>\u00a0\u2605\u2605\u2605\u26053\/4 (for now)<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

#402 Nas,\u00a0Illmatic Release Date:\u00a01974 First Time Listen:\u00a0Yes Impressions:\u00a0This platter is very highly-regarded by hip hop heads, but still somehow I missed the Illmatic boat. THIS WILL STAND NO LONGER… Short (40 minutes) running time bodes well. Starts off a little uneasy with\u00a0a general talking warm-up\u00a0track (“Genesis”) but gets down to business with a quickeness with … Continue reading RS #402 – Nas, Illmatic<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[61,182,10,7,214,9],"class_list":["post-821","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-rolling-stone-top-500-albums","tag-61","tag-4-75-stars","tag-first-time-listen","tag-hiphop","tag-nas","tag-unowned"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/batterymedia.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/821","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/batterymedia.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/batterymedia.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/batterymedia.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/batterymedia.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=821"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"http:\/\/batterymedia.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/821\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":824,"href":"http:\/\/batterymedia.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/821\/revisions\/824"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/batterymedia.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=821"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/batterymedia.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=821"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/batterymedia.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=821"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}