Nas's Illmatic cover art

Nas's Illmatic

33 1/3, Book 64

Preview
Try Premium Plus free
Pick 1 audiobook a month from our unmatched collection - including bestsellers and new releases.
Listen all you want to thousands of included audiobooks, Originals, celeb exclusives, and podcasts.
Access exclusive sales and deals.
£8.99/month after 30 days. Renews automatically. See here for eligibility.

Nas's Illmatic

By: Matthew Gasteier
Narrated by: Cary Hite
Try Premium Plus free

£8.99/month after 30 days. Renews automatically. See here for eligibility.

Buy Now for £7.99

Buy Now for £7.99

Confirm Purchase
Pay using card ending in
By completing your purchase, you agree to Audible's Conditions of Use and authorise Audible to charge your designated card or any other card on file. Please see our Privacy Notice, Cookies Notice and Interest-based Ads Notice.
Cancel

About this listen

Nas was playing a role on Illmatic, even if it was himself. By constructing this persona, Nas not only laid out his own career for the next decade plus, but the careers of dozens of other rappers who were able to use their considerable skills to develop similar personas. His brazen ambition has become a road map for every rapper who hopes to reach an artistic peak. It seems right that Nas would make Illmatic at the age when maturity begins to turn boys into men. This was, in many regards, the first album of the rest of hip hop’s life.

A decade and a half ago, Illmatic launched one of the most storied careers in hip hop, and cemented New York’s place as the genre’s epicenter. With this in-depth look at the record, Matthew Gasteier explores the competing themes that run through Nas’s masterpiece and finds a compelling journey into adulthood. Combining a history of Nas’s early years with interviews from many of the most important people associated with the album, this book provides new information and context for what many consider to be the greatest hip hop record ever made.

©2009 Matthew Gasteier (P)2025 Spotify Audiobooks
History & Criticism Music

Listeners also enjoyed...

Madvillain's Madvillainy cover art
Kendrick Lamar's To Pimp a Butterfly cover art
Kanye West's My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy cover art
The Beastie Boys' Paul's Boutique cover art
Jimi Hendrix's Electric Ladyland cover art
The National's Boxer cover art
Radiohead's OK Computer cover art
Neutral Milk Hotel's In the Aeroplane over the Sea cover art
Bruce Springsteen's Born in the USA cover art
No reviews yet