I discovered hip-hop at a young age, stuffing my face with the Marshall Mathers LP (I had the Discovery Channel and had no idea what a woman’s clitoris was) and The Blueprint 2, much to my mother’s dismay. But unlucky for the 10 year old me, I never discovered Nas’ Illmatic. Fast-forward 5 years and I found myself starting to do my hip-hop homework, getting Illmatic and being struck with what would soon become my favorite album. It’s easy for any lay listener to enjoy Illmatic — the unreal production draws influences from all over, transforming the beats into candy for the ears. On top of that, Nas’ words stick to the rhythm like a suction cup, delivering raw bar after raw bar. It wasn’t till recently that a conversation about a class a friend of mine was taking (Hip Hop Culture) led me into looking deeper into the album for more than the surface level that I enjoyed it at.
The textbook for that course was “Born to Use Mics: Reading Nas’ Illmatic,” and was co-written by the professor Sohail Daulatzai and Michael Eric Dyson with features from a lot of different other figures with interesting points of view to share. I just finished reading it, and my appreciation for hip-hop’s greatest album has skyrocketed. Dyson & Daulatzai succeed in providing a background of all sorts to introduce a listener to Nas’ relentless rhymes depicting the Queensbridge Projects. In it comes historical information, cultural issues, and an overall context to fully appreciate the work of art that is Illmatic. Although at times the writing can get a bit redundant and overly academic, it’s still a great read for anyone interested in understanding the impact of Nas’ official introduction to the world. The end also showcases some interviews from Nas around the time of release. Check a couple of the interview excerpts below. Buy it here or holler at a player if you wanna borrow it.
+jangbar
[Nas]: My whole name is Nasir Bin Olu Dara Jones. Nasir is Arabic. It means “helper and protector.” Bin means “son of.” Jones is the slave part. Niggas weren’t trying to say my name back in the days. When we used to tag up on trains and high places, we’d climb up — I didn’t want to write Nasir, you couldn’t even say it — I’d just write Nas or Kid Wave. I wanted to write riddles and rhymes and make it mean something, but niggas would say we didn’t have time for that.
[RapPages]: Where do you see your future going? Do you want to produce, bring other people out?
[Nas]: I want to be the first black president. The president of the world. Somebody’s gonna have to take me out. I’m not gonna reveal my secrets. I’ma just rhyme — be the rapping president. Even if I don’t have a record deal and they stop putting records out, and they don’t put nothing on the radio and said “Phukk rap” and dropped me, I’ll still be rhyming. I’ll just bring it back to the essence in the parks, where the real niggas survive, and clown that shit where niggas want to be different and talk bullshit when they wouldn’t go to the park cuz they scared. I’ll be there, twenty-nine years old.
