Nasty Nas, as I knew him in 1991, dropped the hottest verses of the songs he featured on. My quest to own Main Source’s Breaking Atoms stemmed from hearing its album cuts as well as my desire to have Live at the Barbeque within arm’s reach. Back to the Grill Again broke my heart because it proved 3rd Bass was no longer. I took comfort in the fact that Nas was on MC Serch’s roster. The Zebrahead soundtrack gave us Halftime, reaffirming my love for East Coast hip hop. After those three singles, I was convinced that a full-length Nas album was gong to be incredible. The Source confirmed my theory.
At that time, Illmatic was the only album I had seen receive the coveted classic album status from the magazine. I can’t speak for anyone else but I’ll say that seeing hip hop’s Bible in magazine form give Illmatic 5-mics got me shook. All I knew was that I had to hear and most surely buy that album by all means necessary.
As I mentioned in my Beatnuts blog post, I bought their CD in 1994 over Nas, Organized Konfusion and Jeru the Damaja’s albums when presented with the choice. There was no doubt that I would own them all eventually but I knew I had to get myself a copy of Illmatic even if it meant paying more for it or waiting longer to do so.
Ghostface Killah’s Child Play, Tupac’s Dear Mama and Memory Lane are among my most sentimental songs in hip hop. If Dubny had chosen Memory Lane, I would have lost it. He didn’t, however, and I don’t fault him for choosing Represent. No one can fault him for choosing Represent.
I had been planning a post about Illmatic since late 2011 but never got around to it. That moment among the three of us convinced me the story would have to be told. There are not too many albums, at least hip hop wise that can unite cultures and generations like Illmatic. As different and individual as we three are, there was no debate as to the greatness of the album.
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