"Two decades since it hit the Earth like a comet (invasion), what more can possibly be left to say about Illmatic? Nas's debut was widely and correctly acclaimed at the time as one of the finest albums ever made, in any genre; and its lustre has only been burnished since. Boasting a concise 39-minute track listing bursting with ideas, the album arrived just as every other rapper seemed convinced the 74-minute upper limit on a CD's duration was a 'fill to here' mark that had to be reached, rather than a capacity they didn't need to get near if they had insufficient material ready to include. It has gone way beyond the impact its relatively modest sales might seem to imply: it wasn't certified platinum in the United States until a shade under eight years after its release, yet Illmatic has always been seen as something rather more than a classic rap LP. The perform-the-whole-album tour (2012), the 10th anniversary 'platinum' edition with extra tracks (2004), and this month's 20th anniversary double-disc release, finally uniting the original LP with the remixed singles, are just the tip of an iceberg of the kind of deep and broad acclaim that fills a good swathe of the distance between 'sublime' and 'ridiculous'. ..."
The Quietus - Back Down Memory Lane: Illmatic By Nas Revisited (Video)
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allmusic: Illmatic [10th Anniversary Platinum Edition]
amazon: Illmatic 10th Anniversary Platinum Edition, Illmatic XX
YouTube: Illmatic (Full Album), Illmatic XX (Full Album, Remastered) Disc: 1 [HD], Illmatic XX (Full Album, Demos, Remixes & Live Radio) Disc: 2 [HD]
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