REVISED: Genre Analysis of "Illmatic" by Nas

Hip-Hop developed in the 70s when DJ’s started playing remix’s of popular songs through the use of turntables. When the use of turntables became popular, artists started using them to make beats to their songs. This is where hip-hop started. Artists would rap over these synthesized or instrumental beats to produce what was known as early hip-hop. Fast-forwarding 20 years later, the game was forever changed. 

Nas’s debut album “Illmatic” made an explosion onto the music scene in 1994. The whole idea behind the album can be seen by looking at the cover. What you will see is picture of the seven-year-old Nas fused with a picture of his hometown. Through this, Nas is showing the focus of the album is his roots. Its about the life he lived, the place he grew up, the way it really was. It was not an easy place to grow up, but Nas wasn’t there to just point out flaws. He accepts it has part of him, but shows its problems. With this concept in mind, Nas utilizes iconic beats combined with incredible lyrics to create an album that people should not stop listening to. Twenty plus years have passed and this album still stands stronger than ever. It is still well renowned for the quality of the songs, but also for being a staple of what hip-hop was and what it allowed it to become.

The album by Nas pulls from sounds of the past in order to make a finished product completely different from what has been previously been made. Even though this album was written in the nineties, many of the songs utilize aspects from the seventies as well as other decades. The rhythms and beats of some songs have a jazz and blues influence coming from the earlier decades. However, with the older instrumental sound that has been used in very early hip hop such as Run-D.M.C, does not result in something that hip-hop has heard previously. Run D.M.C, used similar beats, but had a very different sound. They rapped much more harshly, each line was treated like its own sentence, and there was a sharp contrast between the instrumentation and the lyrics. They Nas expands on this and makes it into his own. He uses very repetitive beats made with very simple instrumentation. Using sounds and beats that Run-D.M.C became famous for he a whole new sound through his quick transitioning and powerful voice. This creates a unique sound that transcends time. His voice and the overall sound of the album starts to sound like more modern day hip-hop where the voice has a fairly stable tone and uses the background music to create excitement. Nas seems to do two things at the same time. He moves toward the future in the sound he presents, but pulls from the past on the instrumentation. This is a culmination of reminiscing on childhood musical sounds combined with the sounds of hip hop in the present times and what he wants hip-hop to head towards.

What Nas did with this album that was so revolutionary is that he combined the types of rapping. The songs all have this stylistic combination in them, but “New York State of Mind” shows this combination of styles to its fullest extent. Nas raps, “I never sleep, cause sleep is the cousin of death/I lay puzzle as I backtrack to earlier times/Nothing’s equivalent to the New York state of mind.” In this song, Nas manages to show his lyrical genius and uniqueness. He shows his lyrical complexity through the double meanings and metaphors, his connection to gangster rap with the topic of the rap, and his ability to tell a story, as these lines act as a conclusion to his story. This song alone is everything that hip-hop encompasses all at once.  At the time of the albums release there were distinct differences in rap styles. There were the gangster rappers, lyricist, and the storytellers. The gangster rappers spoke about the drug and poverty life and had a style that was harsh. The lyricist uses clever lyrics to display a message. Finally, the storytellers like to set their songs up as narratives. Throughout the album, Nas shows his ability to take this one step further. Not only does he use similar styles as other hip-hop artists, but he fluently combines the styles into a style that you cannot simple put into a single category. Nas creates a sound in this album that encompasses everything I love about hip-hop.

I don’t think this combination came by chance. Nas grew up with a musical background with his father playing jazz and blues music, playing the trumpet and hip-hop music being played on boom box’s in the projects that he lived. With this you can already see some of the conflicting styles. His knowledge of more traditional music and growing up in the projects gives way to making something that other artists could not. With “Illmatic”, Nas wanted to tell it how it was and how he grew up. To give the audience a better, more intimate idea he rapped about things in a story format, but rapped about topics that gangster rappers did as he grew up in the projects. It wasn’t enough for him to tell a story, but he utilizes intensely deep lyrics. It seamlessly combined the styles of rapping which paved the way for the next generation of hip-hop artists to pull from.

Much of what we hear in todays hip-hop has been influenced by this album. In 2014, after the debut of his hit album m.A.A.d City, Kendrick Lamar told a BET journalist that “I wouldn’t have been able to do that [elevate his mind a little bit further] if it wasn’t for that album [Illmatic] truthfully.” It is not enough to just say that people respected this album and like the elements in it, but that it actually influenced their music even as far as twenty years later. Just as Nas used older Jazz sounds and put a new twist on lyrical side of it, Kendrick Lamar uses old jazz instrumentation and raps over it to give it a whole new twist. It is about the uniqueness of the album that drove Kendrick to do things his own way and not try to follow any script that the music This is something that came from Nas and “Illmatic”. This albums influences are endless.

This album isn’t just about the innovativeness it brings to the hip-hop industry or the twist it puts on older styles, but in the end it is about he incredible music all these things help to create. Nas was saying and doing things that have never been done before and it is only fitting that the album ends “Nas’ raps should be locked in a cell, it ain’t hard to tell.”

REVISED: “It Takes a Nation of Millions to Hold us Back” Album Review

The album I want to talk about today is by one of the true innovators of hip-hop. This was It Takes A Nation of Millions to Hold Us Back by the great Public Enemy. Coming off of their first album, Yo! Bum Rush the Show, which had gone almost unnoticed by the hip-hop community, the group was looking to create something that the hip-hop community was not accustomed to hearing. By the early 1980s, the bulk of the civil rights movement had already already passed, but this did not mean lives for African Americans were ideal. In fact, lives in New York were far from it. Injustices, hardships, and societal problems still existed for African Americans, as well as any other citizens at the time. Public enemy, all growing up in Long Island, New York, understood from first hand experience what it was like to be treated unjustly and saw the problems that the world was facing. Rather than fighting back against with violence, they decided to fight back with their music. Through the artistic genius of Chuck D, Flavor Flav, Professor Griff, and Terminator X, Public Enemy created an album that spoke about reality. It is an album focused on the problems in society, the media, and politics through the eyes of the group. “Views on the music may conflict, but they’ve always focused on truth and justice”, says Chuck D when discussing his music. This is the epitome of their album “It Takes A Nation of Millions to Hold us Back.”

The genius behind this work of art is Public Enemy’s very own Chuck D. He was hardly the first artist to tackle any of these social and political issues, but he approached them in a way that was revolutionary to the hip-hop world. Most other artists of this time such as N.W.A were rapping about these sociopolitical issues in a negative way. They went the violent route and rapped about killing police and doing drugs on their way to expressing their feelings about the injustices they were facing. Even though these injustices were happening, the focus of people’s attention was not as much on the problems they discussed, but rather the culture of violence they portrayed. This group did huge things for the hip-hop community; however, it didn’t do much for bringing attention to the problems at hand. Public enemy went in the opposite direction. They created a masterpiece utilizing a clear voice and an intelligent use of vocabulary in a way to express the groups controlled rage towards the problems in their community. “Don’t Believe the Hype” discusses political instability and unfairness, “She Watch Channel

Zero?!” points out the stupidity of the media, and “Bring The Noise” lays out the issues each and every African American is facing when it comes to racism. Public Enemy is telling a story through each of these songs which allows them to connect with the audience better.

“It Takes a Nation of Millions to Hold Us Back” uses an incredible combination of conversational rapping, with Chuck D and Flavor Flav going back and forth, as well as a turntable to create a unique sound. The use of conversational rapping gives the songs a more personal connection to the songs because it resembles people discussing these topics. By conversation I mean there is one verse where Chuck D would rap about being discriminated against as he does in “Bring the Noise” and then Flava Flav responds, “Ayo chuck, they’re saying we’re too black, man.” Not only does this create a deeper connection with the song, but I it makes it more hype. I know I have said a lot about how the album is trying to send a message, but that is not all the album has to offer. The album is extremely catchy! The beats of the songs sound slightly jazzy and creates a very unique mood that kept me listening.

I think the best thing about this album for me is the oddness of how everything comes together. “Show ‘Em Whatcha Got” is a prime example. The song has a jazzy background music, the repetition of “Show’Em Whatcha Got” by one voice and the repetition of “Public enemy number 1” by another voice, a turntable to alter the way phrases are said, and a voice that sounds like it is coming straight from a civil rights rally. None of these things would seemingly go together, yet Public Enemy flat out makes it work! This is what the album is all about in a musical sense. It uses a wide variety of samples that are put together to play with the listener’s emotions. The samples and rap combined takes sounds and rhythms that normally would not go together and puts them together to make a unique yet, captivating sound.

The catchiness, creativeness, and innovativeness combined with the message of the album as a whole makes a piece of art that is unmistakably great. If this isn’t in the discussion for the best hip-hop albums of all time, then I don’t know what else would. An album like this may very likely never happen again!