First thing's first I'll say this....Illmatic is in my top 4-5 rap albums of all time. (My holy grail in rap is Illmatic, The Chronic, Acquemini, Life After Death [many will disagree but I have plenty of reasons why it's there & I believe it's better than RTD])
That said, I think the Source 5 mic rating, the general hype which that review gave an album along with the hype of it being so great that seemingly lasted forever has taken the album to a level that's simply unfathomable and completely unfair to any artist. As great as Illmatic is it's become the greek Goddess Pussalaya of Nas albums & is almost becoming overrated in a sense that it's greatness has come at the expense of the rest of his catalog which is very dope. Not diss to Snoop but this isn't a Chronic/Doggstyle situation where Snoop's flow completely fell off the face of the earth and he simply lived off his initial fame while dropping smash hits, becoming a novelty act (u name it, weed head, pimping, now snoop lion)/character & and releasing almost average to wack albums (tho he did have a few good ones NL top Dogg, Last meal) for the rest of his career. NaS' career is literally shytted on because his first underground fan base & critics hated the new direction he went. From what I've seen, a good 90 percent of people outside of the Tri State, Philly, NY, Jersey who've heard Illmatic, heard the shyt AFTER It Was Written. You can disagree if you want, but IWW made NaS a star and most people went back. The West was killing it, Big was on fire, Wu Tang......NaS just wasn't getting the props he deserved. (You can say the same for Reasonable Doubt, nikkas lamed out then came back)
I think Illmatic was rap in it's purest form.......Just raw uncut, hungry dude from Queensbridge who sees the world, knows he might not make it, had a best friend who died, has friends in jail & hopes for better life. He told stories in a way that put you there. It didn't need the flash and jewels & the braggadocio lyrics to get you interested in his story. It was just enough being a black kid from one of the most dangerous projects in NYC hungry to get out and have the world in his hands. It's tough for anyone to ever document that level of hunger ever again unless you're in that situation........IWW is not better but I think NaS took it to the next level tho skill wise, becoming more polished, he's technically better (but sometimes hunger >>>> technical ability.....it's kinda like Young Mike dropping 69 on the Celtics vs Old Mike not doing as much but passing it to John Paxton) being able to come up with even crazier concepts (morphing into guns) telling stories of wars in QB, black girls being lost (which is even more relevant today in 2013) and because the 1st NaS fans didn't like this new sound which was slowly becoming obsolete it got shytted on. IWW was a an amazing album.......I do skip a few tracks and some of the beats/production could be better but I can totally understand an argument for why it might be equal or better than Illmatic. If you can't appreciate the greatness of I gave you power, Take it In Blood, Watch Dem, Shootouts, the Set Up, If I Ruled the World, I dunno what to say....
One thing I will say tho......I can see how starting the album with the Sting Shape of My Heart Sample and a slower flow on the Message would fukk people's heads up. I heard Illmatic first and was like
but musically you have to change your sound over time. Nas adjusted to the time period and executed it perfectly.
I wish I Am was talked about more.....That album is fukking criminally underrated.
