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May 22, 2014Illmatic is timeless because of Nas’s introspective, hyper-detailed approach to his daily life--even to moments that don’t seem particularly notable.
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Q MagazineApr 28, 2014The original beats are still as fresh and inviting as a newly changed bed. At 10 tracks, Illmatic is satisfying lean and cohesive--remarkably so for a hip-hop album with five producers. [May 2014, p.125]
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Apr 21, 2014Like all great works of art, Illmatic isn’t just about the story it tells; it provides us with a fully-fledged character study of the genius behind it.
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Apr 21, 2014As perfect as Illmatic is, there are plenty of crevices that can be explored and different musical avenues to test Nas’s verses/scriptures.
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Apr 21, 2014Illmatic by Nas is a 10/10 classic hip hop album. It's essential, and that's undeniable. Illmatic XX when taken as a whole, isn't.
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Nov 6, 2014The Demos, Remixes & Live Radio half of Illmatic XX, the 20th-anniversary celebration of the Queensbridge rapper's seminal debut, deviates the right direction from its 10-year predecessor.
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The WireJul 21, 2014No album in hiphop history has been less in need of a padding. [Jun 2014, p.63]
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Apr 21, 2014The trouble with Illmatic XX isn’t what you hear, but what you don’t hear. In a vacuum, it’s an unexpectedly well-preserved snapshot of Golden Era, New York Hip Hop. Sonically, it strikes the perfect balance between cleaning up the original recordings through the advent of digital remastering without eliminating subtleties such as the crackle of a needle over vinyl.
User score distribution:
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Positive: 265 out of 293
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Mixed: 2 out of 293
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Negative: 26 out of 293
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May 13, 2014
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Apr 30, 2014
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Jun 11, 2018