The Greatest Music
Illmatic
by Nas
The 58th greatest album of all time
Illmatic, Nas's 1994 debut, is a compact, lyrically dense hip hop record rooted in East Coast boom bap. Nas's intricate internal rhymes and vivid street narratives ride sparse, sample-driven production from producers such as DJ Premier, Pete Rock, Large Professor, Q-Tip, and L.E.S., with hard drums, jazz and soul samples, and clear, focused arrangements. Its concentrated running time and emphasis on storytelling and craft helped define a blueprint for later East Coast and conscious hip hop artists.
Categories
Appears On These Lists
500 Greatest Albums of All Time: 2023 edition
Rolling Stone’s 500 Greatest Albums of All Time (2023 update) is the latest edition of the magazi...
100 Best Albums
Apple Music’s 100 Best Albums (2024) is an editorially curated, all-time canon built by Apple Mus...
NME’s The 500 Greatest Albums of All Time
NME’s The 500 Greatest Albums of All Time (2013) is a special issue compiled from ballots cast by...
Entertainment Weekly's 100 All-Time Greatest Albums
Entertainment Weekly’s 100 All-Time Greatest Albums (2013) is an editorial canon—not a public bal...
1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die (2005)
1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die is a long-running reference book series (first published...
The 150 Best Albums of the 1990s
Published September 28, 2022, Pitchfork’s The 150 Best Albums of the 1990s is a ranked, editorial...
Pitchfork: The 100 Best Rap Albums of All Time
Pitchfork’s “The 100 Best Rap Albums of All Time” (September 30, 2025) is a staff-curated canon t...
1000 Albums to Hear Before you Die
The Guardian – 1000 Albums to Hear Before You Die (2007) is a large, cross-genre listening guide ...
Guardian Writers' Favourite Albums Ever
51 critics from The Guardian list their favorite albums of all time
500 CDs You Must Own Before You Die
who voted: John Aizlewood (editor), Matt Ashare, Michael Azerrad, Greg Beato, Johnny Black, Ben B...
The 1000 Best Albums of All Time
Fnac’s Les 1000 CD des disquaires de la Fnac (Dec 2008) is a collective, staff-driven canon: Fnac...
The 100 Best Albums of All Time
In summer 2007, Dutch music magazine OOR surveyed 100 Dutch pop “tastemakers”—critics and music f...