Happy Born Day Illmatic

Photo retrieved from http://www.amazon.com/Illmatic-Nas/dp/B0000029GA/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1398023750&sr=8-1&keywords=illmatic

"I woke up early on my born day, I'm 20, it's a blessing..."

20 years ago today, Nas released his debut album, Illmatic.  Among hip-hop fans, especially fans of New York hip-hop, the album was considered an instant classic.  The Source magazine gave Illmatic its coveted 5 mic rating (check out The Source’s review at this link http://bit.ly/1jjGjLe).  Today, Illmatic is in my top 10 favorite albums of all-time and depending on my mood, it sits at the top sometimes.  At the time though, I have to be honest, I didn’t understand the hype around the album.  Back in ’94, I didn’t have access to mixtapes and the Internet didn’t exist for me, so what I heard from Nas had been limited to his verse on MC Serch’s Back to the Grill and the first two singles from Illmatic, Halftime (which first appeared on the Zebrahead soundtrack) and It Ain’t Hard To Tell.  When I first heard the album, the beats seemed dark and dense and I wasn’t so quick to deem it an instant classic.  Life’s a Bitch was probably my favorite track from the album, but it took awhile for the rest of the album to grow on me.  I didn’t fully begin to appreciate Illmatic until my sophomore year of college in ’96.  I don’t know what changed, but I listened to it one day and it just clicked.  I finally realized why Illmatic received its high praise.  The album clocks in under 45 minutes and is only 10 tracks long, but 9 if you remove the intro.  It featured production from some of the best producers of all-time including Primo, Large Professor and Pete Rock.  The lyrics were top notch and have stood the test of time and the album was perfectly sequenced.  I’m getting older and all of my favorite albums are reaching these milestone anniversaries.  It actually makes me feel old as hell, but seeing albums like Illmatic get celebrated with re-releases and hip-hop sites giving in-depth stories about these albums lends credence to the fact that these albums are timeless classics.  There’s been plenty of websites covering the 20^th anniversary of Illmatic, so I’ve included some links before for you to check.  So in closing, happy 20^th birthday to Illmatic and thanks to Nas for blessing us with the album.

Large Professor Reminiscing on Illmatic

Billboard's Track By Track Review of Illmatic

Miss Info On Her Review of Illmatic 20 Years Ago for the Source

Cop Illmatic XX from Amazon

Soundtrack Bangers

Back in the day, movie soundtracks were as popular if not more popular than the movies they were created for.  In the 90s, some soundtracks such as Menace II Society and Above the Rim were considered hip-hop classics while others such as Who’s the Man? and Deep Cover introduced us to emcees whom would later become legendary.  These days, soundtracks aren’t as popular, but if you came up in the 90s, soundtrack releases were anticipating as much as any albums.  In honor of these soundtracks, I’ve decided to give you 26 bangers that appeared on soundtracks.  There’s no particular order and I’m sure I missed some so let me know.

1.     MC Eiht – Streiht Up Menace (Menace II Society)

2.     Nas – One On One (Street Fighter)

The Street Fighter soundtrack had 3 or 4 gems on it and this one from Nas was probably the best one.

3.     Outkast – Phobia (Higher Learning)

4.     2Pac – Pain (Above the Rim)

My favorite Pac song of all-time.  This song was only available on the cassette version.

5.     Method Man & Redman – How High (The Show)

6.     Ice Cube – How To Survive In South Central (Boyz N the Hood)

7.     Tha Dogg Pound – Big Pimpin’ (Above the Rim)

My boy Brian put me on the clean version of Above the Rim soundtrack and the clean version of this song was just as dope as the dirty version.

8.     Outkast – Benz Or Beamer (New Jersey Drive)

9.     Tha Dogg Pound – Just Doggin (Sunset Park)

This song was playing in the background from a scene in Above the Rim which came out before Sunset Park, but for some reason it wasn’t on the Above the Rim soundtrack.

10. A Tribe Called Quest – Hot Sex (Boomerang)

11. Common – High Expectations (Soul in the Hole)

Soul in the Hole seems to be a forgotten soundtrack.  It had a lot of dope tracks on it.

12. Naughty By Nature – Uptown Anthem (Juice)

13. Digital Underground – Same Song (Nothing But Trouble)

Introduced us to Pac

14.  The Notorious B.I.G. – Party & Bullshit (Who’s the Man?)

15. Eminem – Lose Yourself (8 Mile)

16. DJ Quik – Dollaz + Sense (Murder Was the Case)

17. Master P, Young Bleed & C-Loc – How Ya Do Dat (I’m Bout It)

18. Jay-Z – This Life Forever (Black Gangster)

19. Dr. Dre & Snoop Doggy Dogg – Deep Cover (Deep Cover)

20. Eric B. & Rakim – Juice (Know the Ledge) (Juice)

21. Warren G – Regulate (Above the Rim)

22. 2Pac – Definition of a Thug N**** (Poetic Justice)

I forgot about this track until a couple of years ago when I came across the Poetic Justice soundtrack for some reason.

23. Mobb Deep – Back At You (Sunset Park)

24. Mic Geronimo, DMX, Cormega, Ja Rule & Fatal – Usual Suspects (How to Be a Player)

A young DMX and Ja Rule.  Mic Geronimo before he messed up and got with Puff.  For some reason I really like this track.

25. Public Enemy – Fight the Power (Do the Right Thing)

26. Main Source – Fakin the Funk (White Men Can’t Jump)