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Illmatic
Nas |
Illmatic marks the debut
of New York Street poet Nas. We also see the first (of many) aliases
for the rapper, known as Nasty Nas. Nas brings out the rawest form
of hip-hop in this east coast effort, as he tries desperately to
establish himself as witty street rapper. Nas while a solid rapper
(as we will find out in albums to come) fails in illmatic,
badly! This album, which is pitifully small, holds absolutely no
hits. “Life’s a Bitch" is great song but not
a hit by a long shot. Nas does not blow anyone away with his rapping
skill either, he tries to hard and it just comes off as average
to slightly below average skill. In other words “reg”.
The fact that there is
nothing interesting to listen to on this album makes it an utter
failure, and greatly diminishes the few things that have some redeeming
qualities. Such as Nas’s budding talent for crafty rhyming.
There are only two remotely good songs on the album, which are “Life’s
a Bitch”, and “It ain't hard to tell”.
The rest of the album is complete trash. I actually got through
this CD faster than I have ever gotten through any other CD, in
history. This may seem like Nas bashing, which it isn’t. I
really like Nas’s other efforts but this one is just too much
to bear. Nas put very little effort into this one, and he fails
to bring out anything about the rugged New York streets he grew
up on, with the exception to the traditionally bland New York beats.
And speaking of the beats he even manages to steal a classic Michael
Jackson beat, one that Tupac or ahhh, I mean some guy with the naming
rights to Tupac, just mixed with the new single “Thug Nature”.
Nas also has some of the worst little hommies on this CD as well.
Figuring that Nas himself hadn’t even made it big yet these
guys must have been really down and out back in 1994.
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Nas should have put at
least four or five more tracks on this album, as that would have
raised the shear chances for a hit song, which this album is begging
for. It must however be said that Nas is quite young here and that
this is his first effort, and it is unfair to judge him on the success
of other well known rappers debut albums. Like I said before the
only redeeming quality is Nas’s brilliant rhyming, which he
doesn’t pull out a whole lot. But every once and awhile he
has some lines that are very solid. But unfortunately for a guy
who has lived such a trifling life he has trouble expressing that
with meaningful lyrics. Like many other rappers from New York, Nas
puts quality rhyme over quality meaning.
There is not much else
one can really say about Illmatic, its just flat out poor.
Lets pray for Nas and hope he reasserts himself in his next album.
Favorite line[s]
"Vocal will squeeze
glocks, MC eavesdrop, though they need not, to sneak, my poetry's
deep I never fail, Nas's raps should be locked in a cell"
- This is Nas's only
bright spot. The track "It ain't hard to tell" has
Nas rapping to some very sharp lyrics.
Favorite track
"Life's a Bitch"
This song is only a partially good song not really great;
its beat is the only one that is bearable.
Total Tracks: 10
Skipped Tracks: 8
Recommend: Skip it
good
Do not go and buy this
album, please don't. If you're a fan of Nas you might just loose
a little respect for him if you have never heard this album.
- Sloppy
Joe 
[Ed. Note: For sure
you are steaming mad after reading this review, so send
your emails to Sloppy Joe, and not to our other reviewers, but
do understand that Sloppy Joe receives on average of three e-mails
a day about this review, he knows that most everyone doesn't agree
with him, so in unless it is something that wasn't said already
(Check The Mail Bag) there probably isn't
any reason to repeat what hundreds of people have already said.]
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