S. Samuel
Rap veteran Nas recently reflected on the success behind his now-iconic Illmatic debut and revealed how likely a follow-up would be 20 years later.
Despite dropping Stillmatic in 2001, Nasir Jones admitted an Illmatic 2 is not a ludicrous idea.
Nas says that his next album is well under way and fans should expect the new project this year. The veteran MC also touched on the idea of an Illmatic 2. “Yes and No, I’ve thought about it before,” Nas tells VIBE on whether he would want to record a sequel to his debut album. “I definitely though about that. It just has to flow, it has to be natural. I can work on that and if I don’t like it [just scrap it],” Nas continues. “I have to feel it. It got to to be honest.” (VIBE)
In summer 2012, Nas spoke on Illmatic drawing on various jazz connections.
“A couple of years ago, I just started to really appreciate the opportunities that I’ve had, the places that I’ve traveled and the people I met and just the life that God gave me. So I felt like ‘life is good’ was a positive message that we should just say to each other during such challenging times. Just have to remember the important things, you know? A lot of producers that I like, they sample a lot of jazz. They are inspired by jazz, so a lot of their music comes out that way. So a lot of the stuff I rapped on sounds like jazz. I was talking to Sting one time and he had heard Illmatic — someone played it for him — and he said, ‘It’s a jazz album!’ I love that he said that because I got jazz in my soul.” (MTV)
“God’s Son” previously talked about needing to get familiar with Illmatic tribute records.
“I wanna get a chance to sit down and vibe to those sh*ts ’cause those are not records that I just wanna play,” Nas, who said he’s flattered whenever MCs pay homage to Illmatic, told XXL. “Those are records I wanna sit down and really get into and see what the h*ll they about on the sh*t. That’s some cool sh*t, though. Real cool sh*t. I love that they did it.” (XXL Mag)
In May 2011, Detroit’s eLZhi hit up SOHH and talked about gaining a few Elmatic co-signs courtesy of people involved with 1994’s Illmatic.
“We gave the [elmatic] music out to Nas’ camp,” eLZhi told SOHH. “Large Professor, I’m hearing, was trying to reach out to me. We finally got a connection and we’re about to sit down and kick it. He heard about it and he’s feeling it. You know what I’m saying? So that’s a blessing right there. Me and Pete Rock go way back, so you know, just to get those stamps of approval from those people, that’s just a blessing right there.” (SOHH)
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