On April 19, Nas' seminal debut Illmatic turns 20; the same age the pioneering MC was when he recorded what would eventually be celebrated as one of the greatest hip-hop albums of all time. To commemorate the occasion, Google Play just released a 14-minute feature that includes a handful of notable names like Kendrick Lamar, Schoolboy Q, Tech N9ne and Nas himself discussing the influence of the album on themselves as artists and hip hop culture at large.
The video contains some great insight on Illmatic including its lasting relevancy, long-delayed commercial success, and similarity between Nas' rise to prominence and that of a young, revered MC like Kendrick Lamar today.
"They're both people from really difficult circumstances who didn't seem like they were involved in the sinister goings-on around them, but were more poets kind of observing it all," says Hot 97 DJ and hip hop figurehead Peter Rosenberg in the video.
Raised in New York City's Queensbridge housing projects, Nas' ambitions for the album were hardly as monumental as they would eventually become. In a ">2012 interview, he candidly stated that all he wanted from Illmatic's success was enough profit to purchase his friend's aqua blue Benz and $17,500 for a kilo of cocaine.
"The album was written all my life," Nas explains in the video. "That why the album cover is what it is. You know, It's me as a kid. I wanted you to know who I was and what I was going through. If I never made another album again, you would know I recorded that time period through my words, through my eyes."
An Illmatic re-issue including a bonus disc of rare remixes will be released April 15 followed by a tour featuring Nas performing the album from front to back at a handful of summer festivals including Coachella and Lollapalooza. Time is Illmatic, a feature-length documentary on the album, is set for release later this year.
Watch the Google Play feature on Illmatic below...