Illmatic Ranked.
In April of 1994, a young man from Queensbridge projects released
Illmatic. Nasir Jones, better known as "NaS," unleashed what many
consider to be the BEST 39 minutes in the history of hip-hop. Here's
my humble attempt at ranking the songs on the classic. |
| 9 | NaS (feat AZ)
Life's A Bitch
The one and only guest appearance on Illmatic. |
| 8 | NaS
One Time 4 Your Mind
Short and sweet... a good breakup between One Love and Represent. |
| 7 | It Ain't Hard To Tell
The album closer leaves the listening chomping at the bit for more NaS. |
| 6 | Memory Lane (Sittin' In Da Park)
DJ Premier's "feel good" track. |
| 5 | Halftime
Nasty NaS in your area.... creating mass hysteria. |
| 4 | The World is Yours
Coined from the theme of what has become the blueprint for underground
success in America, the movie Scarface, "The World Is Yours," is the song
that established NaS as a voice of motivation for ghetto youth. |
| 3 | One Love
Produced by Q-Tip, of A Tribe Called Quest famed, One Love allows NaS to
show contrast in his style. One Love is a more laid back chill song on
illmatic, a much needed change of pace from some of the grimy raw tracks
on this album. |
| 2 | Represent
One of 3 DJ Premier produced tracks on Illmatic. "They call me NaS, I'm not
your legal type of fella, moet drinkin' marijuana smoking street dweller." |
| 1 | New York State of Mind
Inhale deep, like the words of my breath; I never sleep cause sleep is the
cousin of death.
The opening song(track 2) on illmatic is its best. NaS spits for damn near 5
minutes straight. Chorus?? NaS raps into a faux chorus, that's more of a
break for him to catch his breath so he can come back with yet another
legendary verse to etch himself in the annals of hip-hop history. |
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