Quote Originally Posted by mkdisciple View Post
Lackluster production? Premo, Q-Tip, Large Pro and Pete Rock were the best producers around at the time. Illmatic is an album that you never understand on the first try. You really have to listen to it a few HUNDRED times before everything sinks in. Its a masterpiece song so song.



So good Michael Eric Dyson has just released a 265+ book on on the album.
Yeah, were possibly the best rap producers at the time, but there are much better now. The album just sounds one-dimensional in terms of musicality and the limited vision the producers had for it. Compare that to something like Emerson, Lake & Palmer's first album (self-titled) from 1970 that still sounds completely amazing with lush production. That illustrates that they weren't limited at that time, the rap producers just weren't able to think outside the box.

This isn't to say the beats on Illmatic are bad, I like them fine, but not anywhere near the level that so many people place this album. Anyone who's heard something like Archetype, and then listens to Illmatic for the first time after hearing all the hype about it would completely be like "WTF?" And after the 100th time they'd be even more shocked as to how it got elevated so high. It Was Written was certainly a step up in production quality. Though I can understand ranking Illmatic higher overall.

I just can't imagine anyone who's heard A Piece of Strange saying that Illmatic is even close to as good with a straight face.
Quote Originally Posted by Killuminati View Post
Illmatic is one of the best rap albums ever made.
One of the best I can agree with. It's certainly on my top 25 rap albums list.