http://loveboxfestival.com/journal/nas-performs-illmatic-20th-anniversary/
Saturday
Nas. Gifted poet. Confessor. Agitator. Metaphor master. Street’s disciple. Political firebrand. Tongue-twisting genius.
Ever since a 17-year-old Nasir Bin Olu Dara Jones appeared on Main Source’s 1991 classic ‘Live at the Barbeque’, hip hop would be irrevocably changed.
With music in his blood courtesy of famed blues musician father Olu Dara, the self-taught trumpeter attracted crowds with his playing at age 4, wrote his first verse at age 7 and, with 1994’s ‘
Illmatic’, created one of the greatest hip hop albums of all time before he could legally drink. Two decades on, Nas remains an incendiary, outspoken and brutally candid rapper on the recently released ‘
Life is Good’, his tenth album and sixth to debut at the top of the Billboard 200.
Critics and fans immediately flocked to ‘
Life is Good’, garnering praise from all over. Far from divorcing personal problems from a hyperbolic, caricatured alter ego, the album finds Nas confronting the myriad issues he’s faced head-on since 2008′s ‘
Untitled’, mixed with a wayward wisdom that allows him to channel the past without attempting to ape it.
Before the 13 Grammy nominations, seven platinum albums and Top 5 rankings on MTV’s 10 Greatest MCs of All Time and The Source’s Top 50 Lyricists of All Time, 17-year-old Nas would take daily trips to Manhattan hoping to secure a major label deal, only to be shot down by nearly every label before eventually being signed by Faith Newman, then-Director of A&R for Columbia Records, which gave Nas the lifeline to begin his career.
His first album, ‘Illmatic’ has long been considered a masterpiece not just in hip hop, but music as a whole, inspiring countless subsequent rappers and establishing Nas as the most vivid storyteller of urban life since Rakim and Chuck D. 1996’s ‘
It Was Written’ built upon ‘
Illmatic’s’ foundation, with ‘Street Dreams‘ and ‘If I Ruled the World’ (the latter with Lauryn Hill) becoming radio staples and vaulting Nas into mainstream success.
Nas has gone from strength to strength, becoming more ambitious with every new album, from reuniting with his estranged father on the blues/hip-hop hybrid ‘Bridging the Gap’ to collaborations with longtime friend Damien Marley. Over 10 albums, the veteran rapper has never been one to play it safe, remaining just as fresh as when he started out.