The Source rating never had significance is the point. No the thread asks for old heads. Old =/= dust head... most of the nikkaz that was of age around that time, outside of NY are in this thread telling you that the album wasnt shyt. You already know the album didnt sell when other albums were. You know that naS switched his style up on his sophomore album to what other nikkaz were doing, and you know that other nikkaz did not switch their shyt to sound like illmatic. What the fukk other proof do you need to know that illmatic wasnt shyt?
41 nikkas said it did have the impact and that's 67% of the vote
cuz your gawds Lupe, Jay and Pac were all Illmatic/Nas stans?
Illmatic inspired 2Pac is his recording of Me Against The World
"While working as a journalist in 1994, Hampton covered three court cases involving Tupac. Around this time, she received an advance-copy of
Illmatic and immediately dubbed a cassette version for Tupac, who became "an instant convert" of the album. The next day, she writes, Tupac "arrived in his assigned courtroom blasting
Illmatic so loudly that the
bailiff yelled at him to turn it off before the judge took his seat on the bench."
Lupe after hearing Illmatic
"So I puts "Illmatic" inside the CD Walkman, strap on the headphones and proceeded to have my life changed forever...it became my soundtrack for a time...all day everyday, everywhere...along with "IWW"
Jay on "A Star is Born"
"I had the Illmatic on bootleg that shyt was so ahead, thought we was all dead"
Jay has sampled several tracks off of Illmatic, and we all know he been on Nas dikk.
Kendrick Lamar talking about Illmatic
“
Illmatic? For people to even put my album in the light of that, is an accomplishment. It's crazy to even be mentioned with it but it's scary at the same time . . .That era – I wanna say the age range now would be 30, 30 to 40 – they can recognize this was the album.
Illmatic’s the album for the ’90s era when I was growing up. . .it's just a weird feeling to be in that same type of light, ‘cus it takes a whole lot of responsibility to keep that up in the long run and longevity, and that's something I don’t have yet…so
Illmatic will always be #1.”
Ghostface Killah
"When I used to listen to Nas back in the days, it was like, ‘Oh shyt! He murdered that.’ That forced me to get my pen game up. . .The whole
Illmatic album forced you to go ahead and do shyt . . .It was inspiration."
The Game on "Hustlers"
"1995, eleven years from the day! I'm in the record shop with choices to make
Illmatic on the top shelf,
The Chronic on the left, homie wanna cop both but only got a twenty on me so fukk it, I stole both, spent the twenty on a dub-sack ripped the package of
Illmatic and bumped that for my nikkas it was too complex when Nas rhymed I was the only Compton nikka with a New York State of Mind"
Malice of Clipse
"Illmatic captured the whole New York state of mind for me. It embraced everything I knew New York to be. The album had 10 songs, all of them flawless. Me and my homies got great memories of rolling around listening to that, huslin', smokin', chillin'. That embodied everything that was right with hip-hop. That CD never came out my deck."
Joey BADA$$
"Till I draw enough static in my sonic anatomy, and come out imputed with Blueprints and Illmatic's"
Common
Illmatic's only flaw is that "it's too short"
Molded "Be" after Illmatic
Elzhi
J.Cole
"Nas wrote the bible" (Illmatic)
Fashawn
You shyt on The Source's rating yet it wasn't the only publication to give Illmatic great review
Rolling Stone: 4 out of 5
Rolling Stone Album Guide: 5 out of 5
USA Today: 3.5 out of 4
Chicago Tribune: 3.5 out of 4
Pitchfork Media: 10 out of 10
Robert Christgau: A
with the East Coast bias, albums from other regions like The Chronic, Doggystyle, MATW, Aquemini, The Diary, Amerikkka's Most Wanted all received critical acclaim.
