Illmatic
by
Nas
Edit

Release type:What's this?
studio album
First released:
Apr 15 1994

Overview Edit

Illmatic is the debut album of American rapper Nas, released April 19, 1994 on Columbia Records. Following his signing to Columbia with the help of MC Serch, recording sessions for the album took place during 1992 to 1993 at Chung King Studios, D&D Recording, Battery Studios, and Unique Recording Studios in New York City. Its production was handled by Nas, Large Professor, Pete Rock, Q-Tip, L.E.S., and DJ Premier. Stylistically a hardcore hip hop album, Illmatic features Nas's multi-syllabic internal rhyme patterns expressing inner city lyrical themes and narratives based on his native Queensbridge, New York.

Upon its release, the album debuted at number 12 on the U.S. Billboard 200 chart, selling 59,000 copies in its first week. However, its initial sales fell below expectations and its five singles failed to achieve significant chart success. While it experienced initial low sales, Illmatic received generally positive reviews from most music critics upon its release and earned praise for its production and Nas's lyricism. On January 17, 1996, the album was certified gold in sales by the Recording Industry Association of America, and in 2001, it earned platinum certification after sales of one million copies in the United States.

Since its initial reception, the album has been recognized by writers and music critics as a landmark album in East Coast hip hop. It contributed to the regional scene's artistic renaissance in New York, while marking an influential, stylistic change in hip hop at the time. Its influence on subsequent hip hop artists has been attributed to the album's production and Nas's rapping. Several writers have cited Illmatic as one of the quintessential hip hop recordings and one of the greatest hip hop albums of all time. In 2003, the album was ranked number 400 on Rolling Stone magazine's list of the 500 greatest albums of all time.

The Overview appearing in this section is attributed to Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Illmatic. Portions of this Overview may be available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License, version 3.0 or any later version, available at: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/. Additional terms may apply. See Wikipedia Terms of Use for details.

This particular version Edit

Record label:
Catalog number:
57684
Release dates:
  • Mar 30 2004 in United States

Genres

Hip-Hop, Rap, East Coast Hip-Hop, Political Hip Hop, Underground Hip-Hop, Urban, Hardcore Hip-Hop. Vote on Genres

What do Amazon.com customers think?

5 stars These rhymes will absolutely blow your mind...
I'll keep this as short as possible. True, Nas DID fall off a bit after releasing Illmatic, and his albums began to head towards a downward spiral of commercialized bling-bling rap (especially the dreadful Nastradamus), but come on. Give respect where it's due. This is one of the most outstanding rap albums ever made. Nine songs of pure New York hip-hop. No one, not even Nas, could have expected to surpass the greatness of this album with future releases. I mean, the production is great, but it'…
Written by Danny "Alan Smithee"
3 stars Maybe they'll get it right for the 20 year anniversary
Let me preface my review by saying that the original Illmatic album (Disc One of this edition) is an undeniable classic, five stars, without a doubt. But as a whole, this 10 Year Anniversary Edition only gets three stars (I really wanted to give it two), and the primary reason is Disc Two.

The bottom line: this is so much LESS than it could have been.

I love remixes, but the four remixes included here...they just don't work. I don't want to hear Illmatic-era lyrics over 2004-radio-rapper beats. …
Written by J. Nypaver

Track listing Edit

Credits Edit

  1. performer

    1. AZ [Life's a Bitch]
    2. Nas
  2. producer

  1. writer

    1. Nas

Other versions Edit

Illmatic 10 tracks format: 1 x CD
record label: Columbia Records
catalog number: 57684
release dates: Apr 19 1994 in United States
view details
Illmatic 6 tracks format: 1 x CD
record label: Sony
catalog number: CK 57684
release dates: Mar 30 2004 in United States
view details
Illmatic 10 tracks format: 1 x CD
catalog number: 57684
release dates: Apr 19 1994
view details
Illmatic 10 tracks format: 1 x vinyl
record label: Columbia Europe
release dates: Apr 15 1994
view details
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