Nas Illmatic Album
Jump to Album cover - The album cover of Illmatic features a picture of Nas as a child, which was taken after his father, Olu Dara, returned home from an. Illmatic is the debut album by Nas, released on April 19, 1994, through Columbia Records. View the liner notes here and our breakdown of the album cover and track list here.
With expectations high for ’ 10th studio set, Life Is Good, now’s a fine time to take a look back at where the New York rapper’s career began. Illmatic’s cover features the artist aged seven. This is when he “started seeing the future,” as Nas told MTV in 1994, as the mainstream media slowly began its affair with a debut album that, today, is regarded a classic. At the time of Illmatic’s release, Nas was just 20 years old. But to listen to these detailed rhymes, one might think they were the work of a man with considerably more life experience.
Nas Illmatic Tracklist
Never does Nas hold back lyrically – these tracks are deconstructions of the surrounding environment, assessments of his situation and maps towards the way out. A Queensbridge native, Nas grew up in a densely populated housing project – all around him, stories were playing out 24/7. With no shortage of inspiration, his creative juices flowed with an effortlessness as sweet as the end-result rhymes. The same Long Island City blocks had produced and – the words “fertile breeding ground” come to mind.