Illmatic was a classic from the moment it was released. One intro. Nine songs. Only one real guest. No filler. It sounds like the definition of New York hip hop in 1994, yet also sounds completely timeless - reaching far back to the roots of the genre's breakbeats and poetry as well as looking forward as a blueprint for an entirely new generation to come. It opens with dialogue from the film Wild Style clashing with Nas' own verse from Main Source's "Live At The BBQ," before bursting into an insane narrative over bursting horns, an almost broken piano and dirty drums with "NY State Of Mind." Instantly it becomes apparent how important this record, and our narrator will be. He brings in AZ as well as his trumpeter father Olu Dara on "Life's A Bitch," bridging a gap between two generations. At the literal "Halftime" of the album he warns to never put him "in your box if your shit eats tapes." On "One Love" he saves a stamp and writes a letter to a friend in prison over a Q-Tip beat, catching him up on the neighborhood. It's storytelling at its finest. Whether it's the heart-pounding realism of "NY State Of Mind" or the banality of "One Love." He evokes Scarface and T-La Rock on "The World Is Yours" and ultimately ends the record on one of the highest points of his career, "It Ain't Hard To Tell." Using a Michael Jackson sample so amazingly crafted by Large Professor (therefore starting and ending the album with nods to Main Source) he creates a track that is as timeless as exactly how I've described the record itself. Illmatic is perfection. And here, Nas truly is "half man, half amazing."
With the threat of a sophomore slump on his hands, Nas had a difficult decision to make. His debut had been critically acclaimed and his peers place him in the pantheon of legends, but the record sales were a major label disappointment. Illmatic had been commercially overshadowed by Biggie's Ready To Die, an album that brought the glamor and glitz of Bad Boy to spotlight. So what was Nas to do? Stay the course and release a follow-up that stayed true to his first album's vision, or explore newer radio-friendly territory? The answer was a little of both. Ultimately this meant that fans of Illmatic cried 'sell-out' while the Bad Boy crowd still found it a little too poetic. Though it did do some major sales numbers thanks to the singles "If I Ruled The World," featuring Lauryn Hill and an excellent Whodini sample, and "Street Dreams," which interpolated the Eurythmics and even got the remix treatment with R. Kelly. But if you were only paying attention to the singles, you were missing the greatness of this record. Opener "The Message" rides an incredible Sting sample and perhaps the greatest opening lines of any Nas album: "fake thug, no love, you get the slug, CB4 Gusto." Meanwhile "I Gave You Power" has Nas rapping from the perspective of a gun. Although a similar approach had been taken on Organized Konfusion's "Stray Bullet" two years earlier, it's still a great narrative. "Nas Is Coming" was a bit monumental as it paired up Nas and Dr. Dre and aimed to heal some of the East Coast/West Coast rivalry that was in its height. And "Affirmative Action" would be the first track by Nas' new crew, The Firm. Over an awesome baroque sounding beat, Nas, Cormega, AZ and Foxy Brown introduce themselves as an entity to be excited about. It Was Written is not the classic that Illmatic is. But very little is. Instead, it's a worthy follow-up and welcome addition to his discography.
Illmatic is of course an undoubted classic. The 10th Year Anniversary edition is not the greatest celebration however. Ignoring the first disc - the original album - this edition boasts only six tracks on its supplemental disc. That's really a bummer considering the entirety of Nas' demo tape that could have been included, or early appearances like "Straight From The BBQ" or "Back To The Grill" or even his appearance on the Street Fighter: The Movie soundtrack. Instead what we get are four remixes - "Life's A Bitch," "The World Is Yours," "One Love," and "It Ain't Hard To Tell" - none of which do much to shed new light on the originals. They're just sort of there. The last two tracks are the ones worth hearing, but they're not actually outtakes from the Illmatic sessions. "On The Real," produced by Marley Marl finds Nas recording a (supposedly) ten year old lyric. And "Star Wars" is a Large Professor track that samples "Fly Like An Eagle" without being as annoying as that would sound on paper. Ultimately this reissue is a letdown though. The bonus disc is far too brief, and not really worth replacing the original release with, and the liner notes don't even offer up any sort of retrospective.