FUSE TV - 'Illmatic' at 20: Nas Reflects on His Landmark Debut (Page 2)

The Emotional Center

The enthusiastic reception to Illmatic was never really in question. For many, the album's impeccable artistry served as a welcome reminder that, despite the success of Dr. Dre, Snoop Dogg and Death Row Records, New York wasn't quite ready relinquish its status as hip hop's undisputed epicenter. The linchpin release in a Rotten Apple reality rhyme movement spearheaded by Wu-Tang Clan and Black Moon the previous fall, it would pave the way for similarly hailed streets-centric treatises from Biggie, Mobb Deep, Raekwon and others that followed. 

It just came in right at the right time…It was uplifting. It was painful. The impact was crazy in New York. - Large Professor 

Most crucially on a critical level, the album received a rarely issued "5 mic" review rating from The Source – hip hop's reigning national publication at the time. For the review's author, journalist Minya Oh, aka Miss Info (then writing under the pseudonym “Shortie”), measuring Illmatic's qualifications as a masterpiece was the subject of elaborate deliberation and internal debate. "5 mics" meant perfection. The weight behind the magazine's co-signage was immense. For Nas, it was a coronation he couldn't quite believe happened even as it was taking place. 

When 5 mics came in The Source that was equivalent to going five times platinum in the street. 5 mics was more than sales, it was set in stone. And I was like, 'wow, this is happening. This is beautiful.' - Nas 

As generally lauded as Illmatic was upon release, a case can be made that it's actually aged even better over time. Illmatic's brevity now simply sounds airtight – a succinct showcase for a prodigious talent. Nas at 20 was already a remarkably weathered narrator. Where your color-by-numbers gangsta rapper boasted of inflated body counts and drug kingpin riches, Nas admits to only having dreams of being a gangster before waking up to the reality of his far less flashy surroundings.