When I was twelve, I went to hell for snuffing Jesus
Those are the words that got the most attention from Nas' verse on the Main Source song Live at the Barbeque. It reeks of a youngster trying to break into the rap game by saying the most outlandish thing he can think of for shock value. I won't tell you it wasn't that, but...
there's more to it.
A couple years later, Nas would release his now classic debut album, Illmatic. You might have heard, the 20th anniversary of this event was a few days ago. Of course, there's already been much ink spilled and many keys hit praising, chronicling, and breaking down the album so I'll forgive you if you're all Illmatic'd out and wish not to continue. However,...
I'm going to approach it from a different angle than I've seen elsewhere.
One of the themes of the album that hasn't really been explored is the artist working through his own spirituality even though he seems to have a disdain for religion. In other words, the quote at the top was only the tip of the iceberg. Here, we're going to explore the LP's religious references. And since this is a list I will rank them.
to be continued…
Those are the words that got the most attention from Nas' verse on the Main Source song Live at the Barbeque. It reeks of a youngster trying to break into the rap game by saying the most outlandish thing he can think of for shock value. I won't tell you it wasn't that, but...
there's more to it.
A couple years later, Nas would release his now classic debut album, Illmatic. You might have heard, the 20th anniversary of this event was a few days ago. Of course, there's already been much ink spilled and many keys hit praising, chronicling, and breaking down the album so I'll forgive you if you're all Illmatic'd out and wish not to continue. However,...
I'm going to approach it from a different angle than I've seen elsewhere.
One of the themes of the album that hasn't really been explored is the artist working through his own spirituality even though he seems to have a disdain for religion. In other words, the quote at the top was only the tip of the iceberg. Here, we're going to explore the LP's religious references. And since this is a list I will rank them.
vs.
to be continued…
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