Nas Illmatic at Roundhouse
The Illmatic album is a hop hop classic and was released 21 years ago. The album is filled with tacks that could be released as singles with no fillers on it.
As part of the anniversary if it's release Nas is touring and performing that album in its entirety along with some of his other tracks from his later albums, It was Written through to Hip Hop is Dead.
The warm up act was a DJ set by Tim Westwood. This was a major disappointment, he claimed to be going in with the old school classics but forgot to play anything from the golden era of hip hop. Back in the early days of hip hop in the UK Westwood was essential listening on a Friday Night on Capital Radio, but those days have long done. I respect Westwood for everything he has done for hip hop but its time to move on. His cries of "We're going in" & "Lets go" were a bit tedious.
Enough of Westwood and on to the main event. The show started around 9.45 his DJ Green Lantern came on first and the lighting went off and noise levels when up, as the first track from the Illmatic album "The Genesis" started with the train in the background and the sample from the "Wild Style" movie, then straight into "New York State of Mind" which was changed to London at times.
The hooks from Halftime, Represent and Life's a bitch were greeted with appreciation by the crowd. Nas did thank the legend that is Michael Jackson for letting him sample Human Nature in his track It ain't hard to tell. With that Illmatic was finished. During the set Nas said he used to listen to hip hop legends such as LL Cool J, Public Enemy, N.W.A. Beastie Boys but when he released Illmatic they listened to "his shit".
Nas went on to perform some of his other tracks from different albums with If I Ruled the World, I Can, Hate me now, Nas is Life. All of which went down well with the London crowd. Nas played the crowd well saying if he could only play London again he would and that he will be returning again with some new material later in the year. In all Nas was on stage for over a hour.
If you ever get to chance to go and see Nas I would recommend going to see him. He is right up there with other legends of hip hop. This was a bit of a nostalgia trip for Nas as it was for the fans who turned up to show their appreciation for this legend of hip hop in a celebration of an iconic album.
