Nas’ 'Illmatic' Was the Beginning of the End of the Album
Nas’ 'Illmatic' Was the Beginning of the End of the Album
Nas’ critically revered "Illmatic" hit record store shelves 30 years ago today. The digital age has ensured that there will never be another album like it.
I know it doesn't sound like a tech article but it is!
Man as someone who named themselves Album because i am a fan of Albums as a piece of art - I do NOT agree. Illmatic is one of the best albums ever made, no challenge - but it's an odd take to try to frame it as one of the last. Super narrow view. I'm not even entirely convinced that Albums are "dead" though they're certainly less popular than they once were. It's also important to remember that LP/Albums were not always popular either.
Absolutely agree. I'd argue Blazing Arrow by Blackalicious is one of the greatest albums of all time. And that came out in 2002, eight years after Illmatic. Blazing Arrow is such a seamless and well thought out album from start to finish. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blazing_Arrow
Straight up
These gaslight articles are made by trash writers.
Indeed it was era-defining for the genre. In France we had L'École Du Micro D'Argent, from IAM a couple years later, same level of mind blowing music
Not French, I don't understand a word of what they're saying, but man, I love that album. Especially "Demain, c'est loin", an epic tune that gives me Wu Tang "Triumph" vibes.
My favourite song of all time. I learned the 9 minutes lyrics in 99 and can still sing it from memory today
Still IMO the greatest French rap album of all time. Fantastic from start to finish.
Arcade Fire's Funeral came out in 2004 and also defined the genre. I don't see why the accessibility of singles would mean albums still in the album format would get worse.
Counterpoints:
To Pimp a Butterfly - Kendrick Lamar
The Rising Tide - Fort Minor
The Black Parade - My Chemical Romance
Wretched and Divine - Black Veil Brides
Lincoln Park's entire discography
Natural Causes - Skylar Grey
Endgame
Appeal To Reason - Rise Against
Eminem's entire discography (Revival excluded)
Oh my heart - mother mother
Fallen - Evenescence
The Search - NF
Carolus Rex - Sabaton
Amorphous - Icon for Hire
Goodbye and Good Riddance - Juice WRLD
What distinguishes a good album from a mixtape (which is what the article was essentially describing when it said albums where dead) is in a good album there is a central theme (be that a story, emotion or simply a repeated refrain) the songs flow into each other each building on the last, a good album also has a good opening and closing track that introduce or resolve all the tension in the album. It is true many people don't listen to albums from cover to cover anymore, but those who truly love music do because most of the time it is the best way to enjoy it
Reclaimer by Shadow of Intent is one of my personal favorite examples of a well put together album, and that I love to listen through from beginning to end.
I'll check it out
I find it astounding that many people don't listen to whole albums front to back.
How do you hear a song you love and not want to hear more of it? The best way to hear more is to hear an album as the artist intended it to be heard.
It's Linkin Park. Found it amusing that you're stating their whole discography is great, but misspelled their name.
Lol woops
I cant speak for everything on that list, and I generally agree with you, but as a fan of Eminem it has always been an annoyance for me that he cannot keep to a theme to save his life. Maybe in the first four you could argue his theme was kept through cohesion sonically but no way do any of his recent works carry a theme. How many love songs on music to be murdered by? Kamikaze stops to take a stroll trough nowhere with Normal, good guy🤐 and bad guy then a soundtrack to a superhero movie and despite being great, stepping stones fits nowhere on then album.
As an Illmatic fan who's jaded with the streaming landscape, I was ready for some interesting insights into how things have changed but this article was pointless. It was celebrating Illmatic, but the actual argument about technology made no sense.
People aren't excited for Beyonce/Taylor Swift's albums to drop because they're albums. They're excited to get a large collection of new music. People will always want a collection of music from their favourite artists to drop, and call it whatever you want but that's all an album is. And Illmatic is one of my favourites of all time, but it's such a weird and arbitrary place to stop 'good albums' at. So many classic albums have come out since 1994, even within hip-hop if you want to be that narrow
Archive link of the article, https://archive.ph/zhZh4