The 1994 debut album from Nas, 'Illmatic', is highly regarded. It turned up at number 400 in Rolling Stone's list of the top 500 greatest albums of all time. Being a lemming, I thought it was about time that I checked it out, so I picked up the 10th anniversary edition (that includes the six track bonus disc). I was first introduced to Nas via his collaboration with Korn on the track 'Play Me' from Korn's 'Take a look in the mirror' album.

The 'Illmatic' features production from Large Professor (of Main Source), Pete Rock (of Pete Rock & CL Smooth), Q-Tip (of A Tribe Called Quest) and DJ Premier (of Gang Starr), and carries an old-school hip-hop vibe. It's got the hip hop style beats, mixed with horn, piano and string samples that remind me a little bit of Public Enemy. Production wise, the album is quite organic sounding, particularly in comparison to a lot of the slick sounding, highly compressed tracks that are coming out at the moment.

Lyrically, Nas sounds like a man with something to say. Not much in the way of "thong and booty" rhymes here. My favourite track from the album is 'The World Is Yours', although I also have a soft spot for 'Life's a bitch'. Call me sentimental!

How do I compare it to Jay-Z's 'Black Album'? Personally, I like the 'Black Album' more than 'Illmatic', but the two are different enough in style (particularly in terms of production) that it's not really fair to compare them.

If you have an appreciation for early 90's hip hop, then chances are you'll already have this album, and if you don't have it already, you should definitely be adding it to your must buy list.