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

[Bickin Back Being Bool]

This is the author. Kweli just spoke about how Complex (and blogs in general) always pick him, Lupe & Nas to s h i t on to prove non existent points about s h i t no one is worried about.

look at his face man

 

[Kill Dat Noize]

Slick Rick first album had various producers 5 years earlier

naS ain't influence shyt illmatic flopped while biggie went double plat in a year

u think people looked at shyt that flopped as a blueprint or some shyt that sold

Didn't that fukk boy take home ready to die and studied shyt

i hate to say it but i have to agree, and i am a huge nas fan. the influence of illmatic seems vastly over exaggerated. it was an underground classic for sure but it had no hit records.

no one spent the next few years chasing the illmatic sound, not even nas himself.

 

[jwinfield]

i hate to say it but i have to agree, and i am a huge nas fan. the influence of illmatic seems vastly over exaggerated. it was an underground classic for sure but it had no hit records.

no one spent the next few years chasing the illmatic sound, not even nas himself.

Agree with what?

The article says Illmatic was so influential that it ruined hip hop with people trying to follow the formula of having multiple producers

 

[DJ Mart-Kos]

yeah, its def BS cause Illmatic sounded like it had a theme even though it where all different producers.

 

[pointproven214]

illmatic ain't even his best album lyrically let alone musically.

it's not only his most overrated album but easily the most overrated album most def in music history imo

 

[intilectual recipricol]

this fukk callin fillermatic a great album

read complex brehs...

 

[mortuus est]

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.

 

[erickonasis]

I will say those Public Enemy Bomb Squad produced albums >>>>>

 

[AkaDemiK]

This is the author. Kweli just spoke about how Complex (and blogs in general) always pick him, Lupe & Nas to s h i t on to prove non existent points about s h i t no one is worried about.

I hate these dweeb ass nikkas....fukk up out my culture fakkits

 

[Turbulent]

while i agree with the overall idea of albums seeming more unfocused on average with multiple producers, and too many albums sounding the same because of that as well, there is something off about this article. it feels very lazy. like the author heard someone mention it and he just wrote about it without making any research or anything. like he just wanted to sound smart.

 

[Big Mel]

Run DMC's 'Down With The King' predates Illmatic and has a who's who of the day's hottest producers on it.

 

[Zero]

The stupid nikka playoffs

 

[prophecypro]

This is an old ass article too.
What's up with Complex re-upping old shyt as new?

 

[mson]

i hate to say it but i have to agree, and i am a huge nas fan. the influence of illmatic seems vastly over exaggerated. it was an underground classic for sure but it had no hit records.

no one spent the next few years chasing the illmatic sound, not even nas himself.

You're saying something different from the article aren't you? They're saing it changed hip hop for the worse and you're saying that it had no impact.

 

[Whooty Chaser]

illmatic ain't even his best album lyrically let lone musically.

it's not only his most overrated album but easily the most overrated album most def in music history imo

This right here. Only track from Illmatic I bump on the regular is Memory Lane

It Was Written and Stillmatic though