If 1994 is one of hip hop’s greatest years, then Illmatic is one of the richest cherries atop the proverbial cake. Whilst it might not have been the most immediately impactful of the year’s debuts, it still stands as one of the greatest hip hop albums of all time. We’re breaking down the samples throughout […]
pete rock
Straight from the Dungeons of Rap: An Exploration and Oral History of “Illmatic”
When a twenty-year-old high school dropout from Queensbridge dropped his debut album in ‘94, the landscape of hip-hop changed forever. We explore the cultural context surrounding the release of Illmatic, provide an oral history of the creative process, and break the album down track-by-track. This is a tribute to the legacy of arguably the greatest […]
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