I started this blog three years ago while
I was waiting on my bar examination results (I had to do something to keep my
mind from wandering). At that time, I
had no idea The Gentleman’s Report would
become a regular part of my life. I
would like to take this time to thank everyone who has supported the blog over
the years. I could not maintain this
blog without friends, family, strangers, and other people who say things that
inspire me to write. This week, my boy,
CTO, mentioned a topic to me that we both thought would make a great blog post.
He asked me, “which album is more
influential: Illmatic or Ready to Die?” I said, “that is a dope topic,” but I
thought, “I sure as hell do not have an answer.” I mean seriously, how can you decide between
the two albums?
Illmatic: Most
Influential Hip Hop Album Since 1994?
Illmatic
is the most influential Hip Hop Album in the last twenty years. Nasir Jones’
lyrical masterpiece officially came out on April 19, 1994 and once it arrived
in stores, everyone in hip-hop saw the influence Illmatic has had on hip-hop/rap
since. Illmatic was and still is a classic hip-hop album that transcends time
and still remains relevant in the struggle today, just as it did twenty (20)
years ago.
Illmatic
is more than just an East Coast rap album: it is an album of daily life in the
early 90s. Nas describes his life as a teenager in Queensbridge Housing
Projects in a post-Reaganomics New York City. Illmatic is great because of Nas’
wit in portraying his humble beginnings in the (sadly) clandestine struggle of
a neglected portion of the black/brown minority struggle in America: A struggle
that still openly exists in 2014 in light of Ferguson-Missouri, Trayvon Martin,
Sean Bell, Eric Garner, etc.
Illmatic
begins with “The Genesis,” which is an informal discussion of the love of rap
music by Nas, Jungle and AZ. Their love lives on with or without a record deal
or a guarantee of a future. “The Genesis” discusses the love for the art of rap.
Despite the record industry and the corporatization of hip-hop; Nas’ desire to
tell his story through rap still remains.
“NY
State of Mind” is a story of urban life; living in an inner city and trying to
make it. It is about living in the hostile rat-race that is NYC and its housing
projects. Nas thinks of crime when he is in a New York State of Mind. The term
“NY State of Mind” is the dream of a young black man trying to make money in a
system that is corrupt and simultaneously stacked against him. Each DJ Premier beat
breaks with a stunning reminder of how difficult life can be when one is born
into a struggle that can overwhelm them if they are not street smart and savvy
to make it out. This song embodies the lives of many of America’s neglected
people.
NY
State of Mind’s underlying theme of triumph against the systematic odds is a
recurring theme of 90s rap and of rap today. This transitions to “Life’s a
Bitch” where Nas and AZ recant the realities of life’s struggles and the need
to persevere despite obstacles in place. Nas and AZ focus on the here and now
because ‘you never know when you’re going
to go.’ The morality and immediacy of their lives drives them to live life “to the fullest because tomorrow is not
promised”. This theme is easily transferrable to the Shiny Suit/Bad Boy era
of hip hop, the current state of “hip-pop” today in which mainstream rappers toast
to their constant desire to drive the best cars and buy the best clothes
because the future is not guaranteed.
Illmatic
immediately lightens the listener’s collective mood when Nas toasts his triumphant
rise and instills listeners with a feeling of endless hope and possibilities on
“The World Is Yours.” This Pete Rock produced classic has numerous lines and
references to current hip-hop including the infamous “I’m out for Dead Presidents to represent me,” line used by Nas and
then used by Jay-Z in creating the song “Dead Presidents” on Reasonable Doubt (1996). This sample is
brought up again in the Nas-Jay-z rap battle of 2001-02.
“Halftime”
is a smooth transition signifying the change in the mood of the album as Nas
spits a song that sounds like freestyle more than a written production. Still,
Nas works to captivate his audience with herculean lyrics in which he describes
his ability to rap/flow on a track is second to none. “Memory Lane” is another
DJ Premier track in which Nas tells a story about his upbringing in Queens; Nas
reminisces about the world as he knew it in Queensbridge in the 80s. Some issues
he tackles still persist today: marijuana use, police brutality, petty thefts,
the war on drugs and the flawed justice system and flawed sentencing guidelines
for drug trafficking. As Nas forays into his childhood, he explains why he
dropped out of high school and how he became a rapper. At 19, Nas was an
American success story but he still reminisces about the neighborhood he grew
up in.
“One Love” picks up right where “Memory Lane”
left off. In 3 verses, Nas writes an open letter to his friends in prison,
where he explains the happenings in his hood and his loyalty to his people
regardless of circumstance. One Love is an uplifting message to those that may
have lost hope; Nas (and Q-Tip) offers peace and is hopeful for the future. The
name of the song also pays tribute to Bob Marley’s 1977 “One Love/People Get
Ready” which is a musical classic that needs no explanation. Nas’ “One Love” is a hip hop classic that
remains as relevant today as it did twenty years ago.
“One
Time 4 Your Mind” is a short song where Nas returns to his top-flight lyrics in
a freestyle-like rhyme fest. Nas raps about his daily routine in one verse; in
his next verse he raps to the gangsters in the struggle. Both verses serve to
show his lyrical excellence, hunger and talent. This song serves as a toast to
the basic rap structure that has been lost on hip-hop today. Much of rap today fails
to follow a simple rhyme scheme or pattern and often times lacks organizational
structure; “One Time 4 Your Mind” is simplistic in beat but gets its point
across through lyrical content.
“Represent”
returns Illmatic to an up-tempo rap vibe as Nas rips another DJ Premier beat by
explaining the fragility of life in the hood and the constant police presence
within his projects. Nas diagrams the daily struggle of life in the early 1990s
and most of “Represent” serves as an oral glimpse into the life of a man in the
projects. It is the story of the ghetto, one’s desire to overcome it and the
constant strains that such living places one in. It is a story that often goes
untold in America: In “Represent,” Nas tells it in a way that is simple to
understand but too complex for most to solve.
Illmatic
closes with “It Ain’t Hard To Tell,” which is a neo-soul and jazz-esque sample
of Michael Jackson (Human Nature) and Kool and the Gang (N.T). This Large
Professor-produced track is the perfect close to an album as it gives Nas a
final platform to annotate his rise to hip-hop prominence and inform everyone
that he will prevail through song. This song also remains one of Nas’ most
sampled songs to date; it has been sampled by greats including Big L, Mobb
Deep, Rakim and Kanye.
In
the twenty years since its release, Illmatic remains a pillar of hip-hop/rap.
Illmatic is still referenced in pop culture as a story of an American
experience that went untold. Illmatic is set to be released as a documentary in
October 2014 to help others hear the story of trouble and triumph in
Queensbridge and how Nas’ story is not just a story that shook the musical
world in 1994; but rather, it is a story that remains relevant on how it can
change the world today.
Ready to Die is the Most Influential Album of 1994.
Written by: SOM
The Backdrop
Ready
to Die is the most influential
album released in 1994. Before I
convince you, I need you to close your eyes so you can remember the musical
landscape in 1994. If you were a hip-hop
fan back then, chances are you were listening to Dr. Dre’s classic album-The Chronic. In 1993, the West Coast dominated the hip-hop
scene. Then, in 1994, in one fell swoop,
the East Coast made a triumphant resurgence.
That year Nas released Illmatic,
Outkast released Southernplayalisticcadillacmuzik
and Scarface released The Fix. On April 19, 1994, Nas released Illmatic and on September 13, 2014,
Biggie released Ready to Die. Both
albums are classics. Both albums were
deserving of the Source Magazine’s “Five
Mic” Award. But, in the famous words of
Connor Macleod from Highlander, “there
can only be one!” Before you read
further, please take note that today’s conversation is not about which album is
better. We are talking about influence,
folks. I recognize the close relationship
between these two terms. To illustrate the
difference, however, I will provide the following example: Some folks would
argue that Allen Iverson “influenced” the sport of basketball more than Kobe
Bryant, but most would also say that Kobe Bryant was a “better” player than Iverson.
I love the 1990s. The 1990s was a great
time to grow up. The value of the U.S.
dollar was still solid; if you had $10.00, you could fill your gas tank with
enough gas to ride for two weeks; and flat tops and jheri curls were actually
cool! The 1990s had some of the most
influential television shows of any generation.
Do you remember Martin, The Cosby Show, A Different World, and The
Fresh Prince of Bel-Air? These shows
helped reshape the way millions of people viewed many aspects of the African
American culture. These shows made me
want to: attend an HBCU so I could date
a woman like Whitley Gilbert; achieve at the highest levels of my profession so
I could live in a house like Uncle Phil. These shows certainly encouraged me,
but did they influence me as well? I guess
the answer to that question depends on how the term “influence” is defined.
“Influence” is defined as: “the capacity to have an effect on the
character, development, or behavior of something or somebody, or the effect
itself.” Now that we have a
definition, how can that definition be applied to help us answer our question?
Influential albums include songs that move people in some way. A person could be moved to dance, or moved to
dream, or moved to cry. “Juicy” moved
me. The beats, rhythms and authenticity
of the record moved me. Biggie rapped
about his struggles, which were the same in New York as they were for
downtrodden, discouraged people in my hometown of Winston-Salem, North
Carolina. That song influenced me.
Biggie was an iconic figure. In certain circles, he was recognized as the
best rapper at a time when Nas, Tupac, and many other iconic artists were in
their relative primes. Biggie had a way
with words and people wanted to know more about him. He introduced the world to one of the biggest
hip-hop artists of all time—Lil Kim.
Part of Biggie’s influence was tied to his battles—physically and on
wax—with Tupac Shakur. I won’t deny that
this relationship helped Biggie become a household name, which certainly contributed
to his influence.
Regardless of whether you are a die-hard
hip hop fan, a casual listener, or a valley girl from Orange County,
California, you have likely heard Biggie’s song—“Big Poppa. “ This brings me to
my next point regarding his influence.
It is rather ironic that a “hardcore” rapper was able to create Ready to Die, which features songs like “Big
Poppa” that touch people, from all walks of life. His music connected with all kinds of people—that
is influence. Nowadays, looking at how
many “YouTube hits” an artist has serves as a great barometer for measuring
influence. I decided to conduct a small
comparison between songs on Ready to Die
and Illmatic. The results are pretty astounding and lend
some objective support to my conclusion that Ready to Die is more influential than Illmatic. To be fair, I
chose two of each artist’s most popular songs from their debut albums. Nas’ “New York State of Mind” had 11.8 million
“hits,” while his song, “The World is Yours,” had 3.1 million hits. Then, I looked at Biggie’s songs—“Big Poppa”
and “Juicy.” The former had 19 million
hits, while the latter had 21 million hits. Biggie’s most popular songs
received 40 million “YouTube hits” while Nas’ most popular songs only received
15 million hits. Again, I am not trying
to convince you that Ready to Die is
the better album; only that it is more influential.
Returning
to the definition of influence, it is easy to see that Ready to Die influenced people like no other album released in
1994. Ready to Die effected the character of hip hop music,
it solidified that East Coast hip hop was back in a big way, and it helped
people from all walks of life give hip hop a chance to thrive as a respected
genre of music. That is quite frankly the definition
of influential.
Peace
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