This historic performance was recorded live in March 2014 for One Mic Hip Hop Culture Worldwide Festival at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, D.C. No album better reflected the sound and style of New York, 94. Raw rap, soul samples and beat breaks. A gifted writer whose wordplay knows no bounds, Nas tells his own story, the archetypal anti-hero with ambitions of ruling the world, escaping the conflict, violence and brutality of New York's underbelly.

May as well have been recorded in a crappy sounding arena, because you would never believe it was done in an acoustically sound amphitheatre, as it was. Large Professor Music Ltd./EMI April Music, Inc./Ill Will Music, Inc./Skematics Music/Minder Music (USA) (ASCAP) One Time For Your Mind" produced for Paul Sea Productions, Inc. Recorded and mixed at Chung King Studios, NYC. A2 - Produced by DJ Premier for Works Of Mart Productions. Recorded and mixed at D&D Recording, NYC. Contains sample from "Mind Rain" as performed and written by J. Chambers.This resourcefulness carried on into my adult years, leading to a passion for turning rubbish or discarded items into art or fixing them up and onselling. A5 - Produced by The Large Professor for Paul Sea Productions, Inc.. Recorded and mixed at Chung King Studios, NYC. Contains samples from "Dead End,""Soul Travelin" and "School Boy Crush".

Selected items are only available for delivery via the Royal Mail 48® service and other items are available for delivery using this service for a charge. Memory Lane (Sittin' In Da Park)" produced for Works Of Mart Productions. Recorded and mixed at D&D Recording, NYC. Pressing is kinda poor but enough to chill. By the way why this version of illmatic has different album art to o.g.? Life's A Bitch" recorded and mixed at Unique Studios and Chung King Studios, NYC. Contains sample from "Yearning For Your Love" as performed by The Gap Band and written by R. Wilson and O. Scott used courtesy Polygram Special Products, Inc. Ill Will Music, Inc./Skematics Music/Minder Music (USA) (ASCAP)/Taking Care Of Business Music/Total Experience Music Publishing Co. (BMI)

Versions

NY State Of Mind" produced for Works Of Mart Productions. Recorded and mixed at D&D Recording, NYC.

B4 - Produced by DJ Premier for Works Of Mart Productions. Recorded and mixed at D&D Recording, NYC. The enduring vision of Nas: a baby-faced Buddha monk in public housing, scribbling lotto dreams and grim reaper nightmares in dollar notebooks, words enjambed in the margins. The only light is the orange glow of a blunt, bodega liquor, and the adolescent rush of first creation. Sometimes his pen taps the paper and his brain blanks. In the next sentence, he remembers dark streets and the noose. If you listen to it enough names start to pop out: Fatcat, Alpo, Grand Wizard, Mayo, the foul cop who shot Garcia, Jerome's niece, Little Rob, Herb, Ice, and Bullet. The entirety of "Represent". You start to wonder where they are now, or if they are. The album's lone guest AZ, lays it down flat: he's destined to live the dream for all the peeps who never made it. One Love" produced for A Tribe Called Quest, Inc. Recorded and mixed at Battery Studios, NYC. Contains sample from "Smilin' Billy Suite Pt. II" as performed by The Heath Brothers and written by J. Heath. Ill Will Music, Inc./Skematics Music (ASCAP)/MJQ Music, Inc. (BMI). I was the person every Sunday going through your inorganic rubbish on the kerbside looking for "gold"Contains sample from "Smilin' Billy Suite Pt. II" as performed by The Heath Brothers and written by J. Heath. The World is Yours" produced for Mecca And The Soul Brother Productions, Inc. Recorded and mixed at Battery Studios, NYC. Illmatic is often hailed as the best hip hop album of all time, and deservedly so. The first thing that can be (review of Illmatic only) Illmatic' is the debut studio album by American rapper Nas, originally released in April 1994. Often cited as one of the best hip-hop albums of the '90s, 'Illmatic' is the undisputed classic upon which Nas' reputation rests. It helped spearhead the artistic renaissance of New York hip-hop in the post-'Chronic' era, leading a return to street aesthetics. Hip-hop fans accustomed to 73-minute opuses sometimes complain about 'Illmatic''s brevity, but even if it leaves you wanting more, it's also one of the few '90s rap albums with absolutely no wasted space. 'Illmatic' reveals a great lyricist in top form meeting great production, and it remains a perennial favourite among serious hip-hop fans.

pressing: fairly standard Columbia CD release: jewel case, fold-out booklet (no lyrics) with some good photography, sounds good This sounds insane in hindsight. When people start making greatest rapper lists you can't count to five before Nas' name is mentioned. The kid who went to hell for snuffing Jesus has become a sacred cow. Twenty years deep, he's nominated for a Grammy and is in Gap ads with his dad. There was the album with Damian Marley, the feud with Jay-Z, there was Belly. Nas is firmly entrenched in VH1 Special territory. He has crossed over enough without ever making radio hits, save for "Oochie Wally", in which he is out-rapped by his bodyguard-- all for oochie.Removed from context, they seem unremarkable. When spit with criminal smoothness over beat breaks, they became iconic. If Rakim was rap's Woody Guthrie, Nas was the Dylan figure expanding the possibilities and complexity of the form, twisting old fables to match contemporary failings, faithful to tradition but unwilling to submit to orthodoxy. Thanks for supporting my small business, all made in my workshop at Papamoa Beach in the beautiful Bay Of Plenty