On the date of April 19, 1994, what’s regarded as the best and most influential Hip Hop album of all time was debuted. The title of that project is Illmatic, written by Nasir Jones, otherwise known as “Nasty Nas” or “Nas” for short. Born on September 14, 1973, he was raised in the crime riddled Queensbridge Projects in Queens, New York. As he grew up, he was exposed to various gang and drug activities that occurred on a daily basis. In eighth grade, he dropped out of school and began living life in the streets where he picked up the hobby of writing lyrics. His career began in 1991 when he released the song “Live at the Barbecue”. Soon after, he was called upon to write a song for the soundtrack for “Zebrahead”, an upcoming movie at the time.…show more content… “Halftime” inked Nas a deal with Columbia Records which all led up to his debut album, Illmatic. The album is composed of 10 tracks: “The Genesis”, “N.Y. State of Mind”, “Life’s A B*tch ft. AZ”, “The World is Yours”, “Halftime”, “Memory Lane (Sittin’ in da Park)”, “One Love”, “One Time 4 Your Mind”, “Represent”, and “It Ain’t Hard to Tell”. The length of the entire album runs at 40 minutes. A legendary cast of producers contributed to the album as well such as Q-Tip, Pete Rock, DJ Premier, and Large Professor. For the cover art, a younger Nas is portrayed in a close up of his face with the Queensbridge Projects faded into the background. Nas’ style used poetic lyrics and rhymes to articulate street life for the listener to imagine while displaying so much energy which coordinated perfectly with the instrumentals. While also rapping, Nas was still able to sound as he if he was storytelling, making the album sound like an autobiography of sorts. The reason why Illmatic is the best rap album of all time is because of how it depicted life in a world of crime with quality lyrics and production while also impacting and influencing the hip hop world to this