Credit: Mikamote

Nas‘ Illmatic is one of the most iconic rap albums of all time. The Queensbridge MC’s debut project is a masterpiece and can be pinpointed as a key influence in rap music for the three decades that have come after it. From front to back, the album is filled with classic songs such as ‘NY State of Mind’ and ‘The World Is Yours’, but he arguably saves the best until last.

The final track on the album, ‘It Ain’t Hard to Tell’, is esteemed for many reasons. The song finds Nas exercising his wordplay for three straight verses, without any need for a chorus. Large Professor’s production is so prolific that the beat almost feels like its own hook, preceded by Nas ending each verse with the title lyric.

In the first verse, he raps, “Nas is like the Afrocentric Asian: half-man, half-amazin’/ ‘Cause in my physical I can express through song/ Delete stress like Motrin, then extend strong/ I drink Moët with Medusa, give her shotguns in Hell/ From the spliff that I lift and inhale; it ain’t hard to tell.”

‘It Ain’t Hard to Tell’ served as the second single on Illmatic and samples Michael Jackson’s hit 1983 song ‘Human Nature’ from Thriller. Nas initially recorded the song in Large Pro’s home before he signed a deal with Columbia Records and was able to properly execute it in the studio. By the time ‘It Ain’t Hard to Tell’ was about to be released, SWV had already sampled the same MJ song, which annoyed Nas.

“We did the original version in Large Professor’s apartment,” he told XXL. “And once there was a deal in place, we were able to use a real mic and a real studio [to re-record]. After me, SWV did ‘Right Here’ with the same sample. I felt like I was responsible for that record, but the reality is that ‘Human Nature’ was such a beautiful-ass song that people wanted to replay that.”

Nas wondered how he was going to get MJ to clear the sample, but then he realised they were signed to the same label. “When the SWV record came out, I was pissed, because if I was to have a record for the radio, that was the perfect one,” he said. “And when SWV took the shine, it was like, ‘Oh no!'”

Although he was in the early days of his career at the time, Nas had a moment of realisation that Illmatic was going to be special and something people were drawn to. Off the back of ‘It Ain’t Hard to Tell’, he attended an in-store event at Tower Records on Fourth and Broadway and didn’t have any hopes of a big turnout. Instead, he caused a frenzy.

It was on this day that he felt like he might have a pretty successful hip-hop career. “I’d never been to [an in-store,” he recalled. “I expected to sign maybe 40 autographs at the most. [Before we left,] my record company kept telling me what a scene it was down there. I had no idea what they were talking about. It was me and the crew. We were excited, happy, celebrating.

“And we went to the in-store, and when I saw the crowd, it really let me know that this is gonna be something. This is not a tape that comes out and they just play it for a little while. When we left, it was kids screaming, crying and chasing the car. It was like ’N Sync. And this is my first album. It was a mob scene. That’s when I knew. I was like, ‘Yo, this is gonna be all right.’ I looked around, and I was like, ‘This is gonna be all right.'”