Illmatic Quotes

“Eminem found a legendary voucher in the form of Dr. Dre. He also perfected a unique performance style: as Sasha Frere-Jones wrote in “Haiku for Eminem” after the release of The Marshall Mathers LP, “The way you sound black/when you are conversating/but white when you rap.”
― Matthew Gasteier, Nas's Illmatic

“Q-Tip (who produced “One Love”) says, reflecting on the importance of Illmatic. “You had rap before Rakim, like, you could do Rakim A.D., you know what I’m saying? There was rap before Rakim and rap after Rakim. So he’s like, when it comes to lyricism and when it comes to influence, if you’re drawing that analogy, he’s like Elvis, you know what I’m saying? And in terms of the innovation of what he did, Nas is like Dylan.”
― Matthew Gasteier, Nas's Illmatic