Illmatic v. Ready to Die

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?

Written by: CTO

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. 

1990s

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

“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-The Icon

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.    

Crossover Appeal

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

Michael Brown: 1960 or 2014?

1960 or 2014

The turbulent times of the 1960s Civil Rights Movement are long behind us, or are they?  I would like to believe that the world has changed significantly since those days, but every time a young, unarmed African American male is murdered, it causes me to pause. Michael Brown’s death marks the latest in a long string of untimely deaths of African American males.  I have found myself personally drawn to the situation occurring in Ferguson, Missouri for a number of reasons.  I have been reading articles, watching interviews and researching similar high profile cases.  I do not like to jump to conclusions or discuss topics that I have not researched thoroughly.  As I researched information about Michael’s death, I came across some startling pictures.  One of the pictures I stumbled upon depicted a scene from a 1960s protest juxtaposed with a scene from a recent protest being held in Ferguson, Missouri.  But for the captions on the picture, it would have been nearly impossible to determine the year that the two scenes occurred.  Honestly, I would have been inclined to believe that both images depicted scenes from the 1960s.  How have race relations changed from 1960 to 2014?  That is a question that cannot easily be answered in a short blog post.
  

ENDANGERED SPECIES

Young African American men are being killed at an alarming rate. For the most part, the national media is not covering many of these homicides.  But, every now and again, a case comes along with facts that are compelling enough to be covered by the national media.  Recently, the facts covered by national media outlets involve: (1) a young, unarmed African American male being killed by a non-minority male (see Trayvon Martin case); or (2) a young, unarmed African American male being killed by a member of law enforcement (see Oscar Grant case).  Each time either of these scenarios occurs, we have a platform to discuss the state of race relations in the United States.  This conversation may be uncomfortable, but it is often times the proverbial “elephant in the room” that is ignored.  When you ignore problems, those problems fester and become pieces of larger problems.  As citizens of the United States of America, we simply cannot afford to ignore the problem, while hoping that it will dissipate into thin air.

FACTS

Although the facts of this case are still developing, some facts are undisputed. Michael Brown was unarmed when he was shot and killed by Officer Darren Wilson.  Officer Wilson shot Michael more than a few times.  It took the Ferguson Police Department six days to release Officer Wilson’s identity to the public.  There was some kind of physical struggle between Michael and Officer Wilson before Michael’s untimely death. 

There are also a number of facts that are currently in dispute.  The Ferguson Police Department has advanced an uncorroborated account that Michael Brown tried to take Wilson’s gun and that led to him being killed.  However, according to Dorian Johnson—Michael’s friend and person who was walking with Michael before his death—Officer Wilson yelled at Michael and him to get the f**k out of the street.  According to Mr. Johnson, he and Michael told the officer that they were only about one minute from their destination and would soon be out of the street.  Johnson said that this enraged Wilson and he pulled up very close to where he and Michael were walking and attempted to open his door.  He opened the door with such great force that it actually bounced back and hit him.  This infuriated him further and he grabbed Michael by the back of the neck and threatened to shoot him.  As Michael tried to get free, according to Johnson, Wilson shot him.  Then, as Johnson and Michael started running away, Wilson opened fire on Michael and eventually fired the shot that killed him.  Several other eyewitnesses have corroborated significant portions of Mr. Johnson’s account of the story.  According to a recent autopsy report, Michael was shot six times.

MEDIA'S ROLE

The media’s role in this case cannot be understated.  The media’s portrayal of a victim of a crime is critical to the court of public opinion.  Their portrayal of a person can make the world feel bad for them or, conversely, make them feel that they somehow caused or contributed to their own death.  Unfortunately, for Michael Brown, the media’s introduction of Michael to the world was not done in the best light.  Michael Brown was an 18-year old high school graduate who was set to begin his college career just days after he was slain.  People often say that a picture is worth a thousand words.  Instead of using a picture of Michael graduating from high school, I have seen a picture of Michael Brown wearing a tank top and throwing up the “peace” sign (which some folks in the media have alluded to as being some kind of gang sign).  Painting a picture of the victim as a thug is one sure fire way to convince people to not have any sympathy for him.

DIVERSION TACTICS

Six days after Michael was murdered, a video surfaced of a young, African American man robbing a convenience store.  This also happened to be the day that the Ferguson Police Department released the identity of Officer Darren Wilson.  The Ferguson Police Department revealed that Michael was the primary suspect in a strong-arm robbery depicted in the video.  The robbery, which was caught on tape, showed a large man physically stealing a box of cigars from a convenience store.  A strong-arm robbery is one where a person uses physical force to take something that does not belong to him from another person.  By definition, a strong-arm robbery does not include use of any kind of weapon—that would be an armed robbery.  The Ferguson Police Department released a statement that Officer Wilson did not approach Michael because he was a suspect in the robbery.  He approached him because he was walking in the middle of the street and was blocking traffic.  The timing of release of the video diverted attention from Officer Wilson’s identity being released and placed negative attention on the victim. Let’s say that Michael was involved in the robbery, did that give Officer Wilson a license to kill him?  I think not.   

FRUSTRATION

The citizens of Ferguson, Missouri are frustrated.  They have seen parts of their city destroyed by looters.  Many of them have no confidence in the criminal justice system.  They want to know why Michael Brown’s dead body remained in the middle of the street for four and one half hours after he was dead.  They want to know why Officer Wilson has not issued a statement regarding Michael's Death, since he the person who killed Michael.  They want to know why it took the Ferguson Police Department six days to finally release Officer Wilson’s name to the public. They want to know why police officers appeared at their peaceful protests in riot gear and allegedly fired rubber bullets, and tear gas at unarmed participants.  Most importantly, they want to know whether justice will be served. 

Each time a situation like Oscar Grant, Trayvon Martin and now, Michael Brown occurs, there is always a chance that violence will engulf the area.  Violence is not the answer, but people must be shown that their lives are not worthless.

The world is watching, so those individuals involved in the investigation of this crime better do all they can to make sure justice is served.  If not, more riots, looting and death could arrive on the steps of Ferguson, Missouri, as well as other oppressed communities.  Let’s make sure that there is a clear line of demarcation between 1960 and 2014.

Peace