Credit: Alamy

Fat Joe has a career spanning three decades across his solo work and as a member of Terror Squad and the Diggin’ in the Crates Crew. As a rapper born and bred in New York City, the Bronx native’s opinion is well-respected in the hip-hop community, with one of his most inspirational albums coming straight out of the five boroughs.

In Joe’s opinion, Nas’ 1994 album Illmatic is the greatest of all time. During an interview with Pitchfork, he explained how the project is the true essence of hip-hop and can be compared to the most iconic pieces of art ever made.

“My perfect 10 album is Illmatic by Nasty Nas from Queensbridge,” he said. “It’s the true meaning of pure hip-hop, timeless music. This will go down in history like the Mona Lisa or Beethoven. Will be studied from generation to generation of hip-hop.”

He continued, “It was just so effortless. It was the true depiction of New York City streets. Like, you could live in Texas, you could live in LA – you would know what New York felt like if you heard this album. Illmatic, it never gets old to me.”

On the topic of Illmatic, Joe gave Nas his flowers by claiming he should have won many Grammys prior to King’s Disease in 2021. The Queens rapper has received a total of 16 nominations throughout his career, but only picked up his first win a few years ago.

“Nas is Illmatic. Nas should’ve had 20 Grammys,” he told The Breakfast Club. “They should’ve been just stopped it and said, ‘Yo, Lifetime Achievement Award – Nas.’ ‘Cause the album Nas won with, we don’t compare that to Illmatic, Stillmatic or nothing like that. He should’ve been won it. So when they gave it to him, they was almost like, ‘We been frontin’ on this guy for 20 years.'”

Joe collaborated with Nas alongside Big Pun, Jadakiss and Raekwon on ‘John Blaze’ in 1998, which was produced by Ski Beatz and appeared on his Don Cartagena album. He famously raps at the start of his verse, “It’s simple mathematics, you gotta love us/ ‘Cause Joey Crack plus gat equals a lotta dead motherfuckers/ Just when you thought I was done, I recruited Pun/ Terror Squad Enterprise, undisputed don.”

Nas opens the song with a sinister verse of his own, rapping, “My stripes show like regiments, military intelligence/ Murder game, I leave no evidence, credentials/ Go ask my pre-school, even talk to my old principal/ He’d tell you how I used to pack a No. 2 pencil.”

Both Joe and Nas are still going strong to this day after releasing their first albums in the early ’90s. Joe’s latest album The World Changed on Me was released in December 2024, while Nas dropped Magic 2 and Magic 3 in 2023.