It’s hard to comprehend just how different the hip-hop world was before 1994 when Nas dropped one of the most impressive albums of all time with Illmatic. The New York native is such a legendary figure in the scene that it can be easy to forget just how seismic the change of pace was.
You’ll be hard-pressed to find a favourite album list from anybody operating within the confinements of the hip-hop world who omits Illmatic among their most treasured records. While Nas hasn’t always produced the goods, over the last 25 years, he has occasionally dropped a record that fails to hit home, which is frustrating due to the sheer talent that the man possesses. It’s an indisputable fact that Illmatic is at least one of the most divine hip-hop records of all time, changing lives and genres in its wake. But what records changed the life of Nas?
It can feel trivial to suggest that a singular LP can change somebody’s life. But, we’d bet that almost everybody reading these lines can pinpoint one album that opened you up to the possibilities of music. Even beyond music, some records can inspire you to achieve greatness, follow your own path or encourage you to break down the barriers you have put in front of you. For Nas, one such album changed everything.
Ice Cube may have found his fame with N.W.A. as the politically-minded mouthpiece of the group, but he sealed his star on the hip-hop walk of fame when he left the group and began firing out the kind of gangsta rap that could make a whole street shudder. His record, Death Certificate from 1991, was the second solo record from Cube and was accepted like a bullet to the head of the establishment.
On the other side of America, the LP would find an audience with Nas. Speaking with Complex about his 25 favourite records of all time, Nas picked out Cube’s sophomore album and a few others, as albums that changed his life forever: “Death Certificate is one of the albums that changed my life along with [MC Shan’s] Down By Law, Criminal Minded [from Boogie Down Productions] and a few others.”
For Nas, it was the authenticity of Cube’s raps that broke the mould and landed heavily: “Death Certificate hit me at a time when I was hustling, when I was hanging with hustlers, when I was making life-changing decisions in my life. Death Certificate spoke to me. To this day, it’s one of the boldest, bravest, realest rap albums that will ever be made.”
Listen below to Ice Cube’s Death Certificate in full.