Nas - Illmatic = PF 10.0
Curious to hear a 10 outta 10 rap record. I'd been critical in the past, eh.
OK, maybe it suffers from cliche bits..."yo-yo whor-whore word-word"... which could hardly be its fault.
And, it occurs to me, perhaps the sample of rap records I'd heard at the time were only poor handmedowns. Cos-- and I think you're gonna go with me on this-- most rap records are donkeyshit awful.
So, yeah, I'm not qualified to say if this is 10 outta 10 or not. I am gonna say I hear a lot more goodness than I expected.
Yeah, lot more.
*Outkast, DJ Quik and Nas make 3...I'm not ready to join a club or anything*
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Jesus.
Had a couple of vodkas
I know how it reads, though.
Fuck it.
You're old enough to drink vodka,
but you've never heard Illmatic?
oceanRain, bro, just don't.
Just say you like the record, no need to weigh it down with all that other nonsense your speaking.
*you're
While I'm here. People who say this is their favorite rap album are like those that say vanilla is their favorite ice cream flavor or that Sg Peppers is their favorite rock record.
Great album tho, obviously. Kind of the standard that all hip hop albums are stacked up against, for better or worse.
It's my favourite rap album :)
i don't listen to a lot of hip hop tbh
it's the best i've heard though.
Your statement is definitely correct, i don't know why anyone would be annoyed by it.
Having said that my mates who listen predominantly to hip hop probably have it in their top 5 as well.
I'm not annoyed,
it was 2:16 am when I posted this so I may have been annoyed at that moment, idk.
Its great, its not vanilla.
get off your high horse
I already did?
Don't be a pedant or make ridiculous statements.
Illmatic is a great album, period, there's nothing about it that suggests its bland - it may have inspired every other rap album after it because it is seminal. It is not just a rap album either, like people who use this forum often like to define. Its just a good album, one of the best ever.
Vanilla is delicious.
I'm refferring to theShipments post btw...
Never said the record was bland. More a critique of people.
It's top 5-10 for me. Love it, front to back. Just you know, it's the default answer for people that don't listen to rap (yah and a lot that do too). I'm all for vanilla, sometimes anyway. I guess ive been preferring other flavors over it, although it's often nice to return to familiar comfort on occasion.
Not even his best album...
as anyone who actually likes music knows.
come on, that's not true
what's better?
Haha
'as anyone who actually likes music knows.'
What a thing to say!
Whats better?
He's a tedious troll...
best to ignore.
Illtrollin'
.
Please enlighten us as to what his best album is, then.
It's a classic. I've overplayed it slightly, and there are several tracks I now skip. Looking back on it 20 years after it came out and calling it vanilla doesn't sit right with me. When it came out, there was nothing else really like it.
From a UK persons perspective, there wasn't that much hype. A few freestyles, guest spots on the MC Serch and Main Source albums, but no endless stream of mixtapes. Everyone was reading about a relatively unknown rapper making an album with Serch, Pete Rock, Premier, Q-Tip, Large Professor etc but didn't know a lot about it. Then this perfectly crafted, 10 track albums appears. Absolutely no filler.
I'd be hard pressed to name 10 better hip hop albums.
This ^ totally (apart from the skipping tracks part!)
Call me vanilla or whatever, but Illmatic is one of the few genuinely perfect albums I've heard. Some of the best beats of their entire careers from the absolute cream of East Coast production at the time, not cluttered by pointless guest spots (AZ kills it too) and Nas untouchable on every track. The fact that he was a teenager when he recorded it still amazes me.
That legions of people who do or don't normally listen to rap have since proclaimed it a work of genius doesn't lessen its impact for a second. Occasionally records are worthy of the hype they generate and this is one of those records.
I'd be hard pressed to name one better hip hop album. There are a few that are arguably as good, but top to bottom better? Forget about it
I think what elevates it so much
is the timing, setting and the context surrounding it. Like some of the stuff that Chairman LMAO mentioned plus more; the insane group of hand picked in-their-peak producers, the rockist approved album length with no skits/wasted space, the fact that it was 100% New York in every way possible, his age, his storytelling, all the quotable lines, the mystery, the way he rode beats melodically (like Rakim but with more depth/impact).
The whole thing is MEANT to be perfect, and it is! If someone who'd never heard hip-hop asked what it was all about I would definitely hand them Illmatic as a jump off. So it probably is the best... but that doesn't mean its the record that I enjoy listening to the most or the record that had the most impact on me as a rap fanatic. Those are the reasons why I personally rate Rhythm-al-ism, ATLiens, Doggystyle and maaaaaaybe 36 Chambers a little higher.
It's easily a 10/10
and what's all this anti-rap nonsense, what are you 80?
More a 9.9/10 tbh
I like rap
Wut.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/music/reviews/42d3
So now I'm jetting to the building lobby
And it was filled with children probably couldn't see as high as I be
NY State of Mind is fucking incredible.
It's worth saying that it's a really nicely written review
http://pitchfork.com/reviews/albums/17497-illmatic/
''There are many albums with higher highs than Illmatic, but none with fewer flaws.''
^I'd struggle to argue with that.
also
The more I listen to Illmatic, the more haunted it feels. When you're younger, it clubs you with its hail of words and the skeletal beauty of its beats. But the older I get, the more it strikes me as a teenaged requiem for those still living.
this is a quote from the review not me btw
absolutely brilliant piece of writing
for all it's problems - and while it's 'easy' to make such proclamations, 30, 20, 10 years on - most of the reviews of reissues of classic albums are exceptionally good.
the first few paragraphs of this review are kinda atrocious to me
I understand describing the link between a certain place to an album, but this just sounds like beat poetry gone wrong. 'Arthritic rumble' of a train?
'The F Line, pre-Giuliani, packed with rats and villains, foreigners and flummoxed out-of-towners, beggars, bandits, and sweating working stiffs'
really???
It starts a little flowery but it gets better imo.
Just finished the review. I liked this bit:
--Who cares whether it's the greatest rap album of all-time or not? It's an example of how great rap can be, but not necessarily the way it should be.--
Fair enough, i probably shoulda just said something like that.
agree - after that intro it gets much better
This is possibly the only ever perfect 10 rap record
It's faultless.
I would just like to say:
The thread starter sounds like the drunken mutterings of someone who is under the impression that Illmatic is a new record. This is a bizarre thing.
It is about as bizarre, though, as questioning P4k giving it a 10.0. Few hip-hop records deserve it. But then, few hip-hop records are as pristine as that one.
few records deserve it*
.
Just stuck it on at work. His writing is still bloody good.
"I rap in front of more n****s than in the slave ships
I used to watch CHiPs, now I load glock clips"
superb trolling from forzaborza.