Wednesday 2 June 2010

THE GRAMMATIC EXPLOSION

Nasir bin Olu Dara, visque Allah....From Nasty to Esco to the cult icon that he is fast becoming today, that guy Nas from Queensbridge Projects has had me hooked. So hooked in fact that, as i write this with Illmatic blasting out of my stereo, i continue to let it do so despite the skips and jumps, a result of years worth of collective scratches and marks on that there classic CD. Illmatic provided so many quotables, many of which are only becoming fully appreciate today. However I'm sure you've all heard the whole Illmatic goatness talk and have read first hand just how much this album means to so many people so....What I've decided to do is put together a collective of some of the dope Illmatic articles and breakdowns I've come across over the years. Normally i wouldn't want the to fall under the label of just another copy n paste blogger, but to be quite frank, you've this all before. Me giving my personal stan biased review of Illmatic and Nas in general would only cause irritation. So instead why not see some dope interviews, inside information and rare pics on the man and album...


Without further ado here are some links to everything Illmatic:

(click to enlarge images)

This one comes courtesy of those over at thimk blog
who are just straight buggin out with their relentless uploading of all Hip Hop related magazine's back issues. Good shit, keep up the good work guys and props for this one.


In one of Hip Hop's greatest years a magazine named Ego Trip ran an article introducing that ill emcee straight outta Q.B. I like the way they approached the whole situation,unlike many 'Urban' magazines now days Ego were able to give casual interviews asking questions that you actually wanted to know the answers to. Too many interviews today are conducted with the same boring questions that give the artist no choice but to answer in a certain way (of course they're not going to say the fans won't like it or they didn't enjoy working with so and so..). However, with interviewers that make use of the same slang and four letter words as the artists themselves, you just know you're about to read some shit. Reading an interview like this is like watching Nas converse with another Q.B resident as he keeps the language and topic strictly local. This insiders perspective and nitty gritty style interviews is something Hip Hop mags of today are most def missing.


XXL ran a 15th anniversary special on Illmatic featuring Hi-Res classic images and words from some familiar names giving their take on the undisputed classic and the emcee behind it. Enjoy.









And finally after this onslaught of scanned images, i present to you, probably one of the best break-downs of Illmatic I've ever seen. Courtesy of Dan Love over at ohword blog here is his own 'Deconstucting of Illmatic'.

Oh and if ya'll are thinking 'Oh Snap!' He didn't even include the obvious Source 5 mic review.
That's right Timmy I didn't. And there's a very good reason why. That review is perhaps the most read, most easily accessible Source review in history. Google is your friend, and if you're that desperate I'm sure as a friend he will be willing to show you (fairly swiftly i might add) just exactly where to find that review.

Peace ya'll.


No comments:

Post a Comment

AYO!