Yeah, I just started off with a video, a video only with music and a picture. Just a warning, if you didn't like the song above, don't bother reading anymore of the post. (Cool, so it's just me now? Nice)
The afore mentioned song (sorry I just read all the lawyer talk on the last post, really not my best) is the first track off Nas's debut album, Illmatic. Now you may be wondering why in the world I would be talking about Illmatic (I really overuse the imposing on the audience a question meme, don't I? (See what I did there?)). Well first, I'm bringing culture to this blog (yeah, Illmatic counts as a cultured reference) and second, as the title of this post implies, it is quite simply the greatest hip-hop album ever made.
First, the production of the album is simply outstanding. Nas put together an absolute murderers row of producers for Illmatic. I would go so far as to say that the producers used on Illmatic include 4 of the 10 best producers of all time (In my rankings DJ Premier comes in at #2, Large Professor at #4, Q-Tip at #7 and Pete Rock at #10). And these guys weren't just screwing around in the studio, Q-Tip said, "We were all in there, pumping out some of the best beats of our careers." The beats are a clinic in minimalism, just heavy drums and bass with little useless glitter that characterizes what pass for good beats today. I would go so far as to say that Illmatic is the best produced hip-hop album of all time. With only the RZA's (The best producer of all time) masterpieces of Enter the Wu-Tang: 36 Chambers and Liquid Swords coming close.
Nas's flow on Illmatic is simply astounding. One only needs to hear NY State of Mind's first few bars to get that. Often, Nas's pure flow and skill as a rapper is overlooked, but on Illmatic it takes the album to the next level. His flow is the best it's ever been, one only needs to look at the first bars of NY State of Mind to see how smooth he is, even over the most complex of rhymes.
But Illmatic isn't just a hip-hop album. It's a work of art. When it comes to the best poets of the 20th Century some might point to the Eliots, Yeatses, Nerudas, and Ginsbergs (Yeah, Spanish and Beat Poetry, I told you I was cultured) of the world, but I say nay. Nasir Jones is the greatest poet of the 20th Century and I point to Illmatic as the reason why. The complexity, technical precision, and topics of his rhymes are something that hasn't been seen in hip-hop before or since Illmatic.
On Illmatic, Nas focuses on the streets he grew up on in Queensbridge, New York. He spins tales of a neighborhood party, visiting his best friend in jail, his childhood, drug use, and most of all-the drug trade. Nas tells it how he sees it, he expresses the cold truth of the streets. Unlike the Notorious BIG's more successful debut album, that also came out in 1994 (1994 was the best year in the history of hip-hop), Ready to Die, Illmatic is not about the money and riches and women that the artist possesses. Illmatic is an album about the cold hard truth-it's a terrible life out there with no way out (it's basically just The Wire of hip-hop). "The World Is Yours" is probably the best example of this. I won't go into deep literary analysis, just know the world is something, but it's definitely not yours.
Nas's rhyming on the album is also amazing. His complex rhyme schemes had never been seen before in hip-hop. Nas brought internal rhyme schemes to the forefront of his work, the album's closer "It Ain't Hard to Tell" probably has the most complex rhyme schemes in the history of hip-hop. Nas took the lessons of his predecessors like Kool G Rap, Big Daddy Kane, and Rakim (3 of the best Golden Age rappers) to heart, and builds upon their incredible flow and rhyming.
So heres one more track off the album, "One Time For Your Mind"
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As you probably know, one of my favorite shows, Lost is ending Sunday (hey that's today!). Years after it has ended, Lost will be remembered as being the most ridiculous show of all time (such bold statements on this post! (exclamation points!)) and for good reason. But despite the time traveling, immortals, smoke monsters, fight v. good and evil, constants, polar bears, bad nicknames, complete disregard for that fact that it takes skill to accurately shoot a gun, hatches, incidents, caves filled with magic light, 3 toed statues, magical lighthouses that somehow go unnoticed for 5 seasons, talking to ghosts, flashbacks, flash forwards, Kate, sideways universes, losing being able to speak english, useless temples, random skeletons, and Jack's tattoos episode (yeah most of those came form the last season, just shows you how poor a job they've done) I love and will always love this show. The Pilot episode, the best hour of television I've ever seen, is up on hulu right now. Go watch it.
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Oh and congrats to Ben for winning student council vice-president. Yay!
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Animal Collective's "Street Flash"
(Will?)
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