How Nas' "Illmatic" Ruined Hip-Hop - Complex

[Dusty Bake Activate]

The article is dumb as fukk. Classic case of a causation/correlation fallacy. Illmatic didn't create the trend of super producers selling hits. That would've inevitably occurred anyway. Tip, Primo, Large Pro, and Pete Rock weren't even hit single producers like those who came later, Neptunes, Timbaland, Trackmasters, etc. They were just good, well-respected elite hip-hop album producers.

Complex publishes pointless bullshyt like this?

 

[AJaRuleStan]

The article makes a claim that Illmatic caused an increase of multi-producer rap albums, yet it doesn't actually cite any specific examples of this. Then the article claims that majority of those multi-producer rap albums that came out after Illmatic were trash solely because they lack the coherence that comes from a single-producer rap album, yet again, the article gives no examples to prove that theory as true.

It's like they came up with a hypothesis and then told us about it, but forget to provide the evidence to prove it as true. Instead, we should just take their word that it is the case that illmatic caused X. This is fuccboi journalism 101.

 

[y que]

the most pointless article of all time

 

[Gravity]

Yet another example of why Illnatic is the most overrated hiphop album ever.

 

[UpAndComing]

These people really tryna make use of their useless Philosophy and Ethnomusicology degrees

 

[ugksam]

fukk that old ass boring 80's and early 90s production

 

[JuvenileHell]

Posting Complex articles should be a bannable offense

 

[ℒℴѵℯJay ELECTUA]

A pretty wack piece to be honest. Just his writing style, dry.

 

[Deltron]

Nothing wrong with multiple producers.


Albums can still have a cohesive sound with multiple producers, it's also up to the artist to pick the beat that'd best mesh with the project they have in mind.

 

[Supa]

Illmatic had 5 producers but a single, cohesive sound. Rap got more commercial in the Bad Boy era, it also became more regional as the south emerged, and super producers started to seek the spotlight. Rappers started chasing hits and paying for Tim, Neptunes, and Storch tracks. Albums had east, west, south, and midwest sounding songs to appeal to every corner. Features began taking up 85% of the songs.

It wasn't Nas, it was the commercialization that started after Ready to Die or post 1995. It went from making a classic to making a potentially platinum selling album. The standards changed. The audience broadened. The music was never the same.

The author is extremely short sighted in his analysis.

 

[DaGoat]

Give culture vultures a stage brehs

 

[IShotTheSheriff]

Claim that setting the bar high is what "ruined" a genre, brehs.

 

[IllmaticDelta]

Illmatic had 5 producers but a single, cohesive sound. Rap got more commercial in the Bad Boy era, it also became more regional as the south emerged, and super producers started to seek the spotlight. Rappers started chasing hits and paying for Tim, Neptunes, and Storch tracks. Albums had east, west, south, and midwest sounding songs to appeal to every corner. Features began taking up 85% of the songs.

It wasn't Nas, it was the commercialization that started after Ready to Die or post 1995. It went from making a classic to making a potentially platinum selling album. The standards changed. The audience broadened. The music was never the same.

The author is extremely short sighted in his analysis.

 

[Tunez]

Horrible article

 

[Pseudo]

But this is a blatant troll article

I hope none of y'all actually clicked and gave complex traffic.