Looking at an Album as a Whole: Nas' Illmatic

From its humble beginning in the 1970s all the way up to the present day, hip hop artists have released an incredible amount of albums. With all of the incredible talent behind the albums, it is no shocker that there are so many high quality songs and such a debate on what the greatest album of all time is. An album that comes up frequently in the debate and is arguably considered the greatest hip hop album ever would have to be Nas' debut album "Illmatic"

This historic album was released on April 19, 1994 by Columbia Records and quickly rose to number 12 on United States Billboard 200 chart. The album sold more than 59,0000 copies in its first week yet it still fell below the initial sales expectations. Even though initial sales were lower than expected, word got out from critics that this album was a masterpiece and this idea quickly spread throughout the nation.

One of the main reasons for its immense popularity would have to be Nas' ability to tell stories in song and how impressive his lyrical content was. Throughout most of the album the listener can pick up on the fact that he is using events from his own life and portraying these events to his listeners. Nas takes his listeners on a journey through his hard life living in New York City. He focuses on the tough aspects of his life such as the high rate of violence between gangs, the extreme poverty that he had to witness and cope with everyday, and the rampant drug use in his neighborhood. One of the songs that portrays the gory violence and rampant drug use is " N.Y. State of Mind."

Not only was Nas considered one of the best storytelling rappers of all time, but he was also considered a lyrical genius. This means that when looking at the words that he is saying, they actually make sense and have deep, underlying meaning. Unfortunately today with artists like Lil Wayne, Soulja Boy etc. we see less and less meaningful lyrics and artists with the ability to create masterpieces. Brilliant lyrics like " I never sleep cause sleep is the cousin of death" from "N. Y. State of Mind" ,which means he would always have one eye open because in the hood you never knew when danger or even death was close. Overall the album "Illmatic" is filled with with extremely intelligent lyrics throughout, which makes it arguably one of the greatest hip hop albums ever created. The songs " The World is Yours", "One Love", and "Life's A Bitch" are all songs that truly show why Nas is so great.