Born To Use Mics: Reading Nas’ Illmatic
An unauthorized Nas biography (sorta) by Michael Eric Dyson and Sohail Daulatzai.
The best and brightest writers of the hip-hop generation reflect upon the era’s landmark album: Nas’s Illmatic.
From the moment then nineteen-year-old Nasir “Nas” Jones began recording tracks for his debut album the hip-hop world was forever changed. Released in 1994, Illmatic, was hailed as a masterpiece and is one of the most influential albums in hip-hop history. In Born to Use Mics, Michael Eric Dyson and Sohail Daulatzai have brought together the brightest minds to reflect upon and engage one of the most incisive sets of songs ever laid down on wax.
Dropping December 28th. Source: Amazon via RR
This entry was posted by nation on Friday, November 6th, 2009 at 7:49 pm and is filed under Books/Magazines. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.





November 6th, 2009 at 7:56 pm
I’m gonna bump illmatic for the rest of the evening. 1 spin every 2 years
November 6th, 2009 at 8:01 pm
that’ll be slick
November 6th, 2009 at 8:04 pm
i bump illmatic ever other day …GOAT Hiphop LP in my humble opinion
November 6th, 2009 at 8:07 pm
Oh wait, I thought the BP3 was the landmark album of the era? ROTFLMMFAO
November 6th, 2009 at 8:12 pm
RR >
November 6th, 2009 at 9:12 pm
If you need 3 blueprints to build a dynasty then you’re a fucking terrible architect.
November 6th, 2009 at 9:45 pm
what a great idea
November 6th, 2009 at 10:01 pm
Having Michael Eric Dyson write a book about your album>Anything Jay-z has ever done in his career. I dare you to argue. And please dont use Jay-Z’s financial empire as the foundation of your argument. Because when your under the earth, if all people can say is “Man, he made alot of money” your legacy aint worth shit. Real talk.
November 6th, 2009 at 10:34 pm
elgindotcom’s a dumbass
November 6th, 2009 at 11:13 pm
@novemberend
At the end of the day, Nas is like Rakim’s kid that he never claimed but everyone knows is his. He’s a Rakim clone. There is no way Illmatic can ever come b4 or be rated above Paid in Full. Pac siad on ‘Against All Odds’… “Yo Nas ya while damn style is bitten” and if you listen to the background vocals when he says that you can hear, “sound just like Rakim man.”
November 6th, 2009 at 11:52 pm
Paid and Full and Illmatic are two different albums…haters hate to give Nas his respect!!!
November 6th, 2009 at 11:58 pm
elgindotcom Says:
November 6th, 2009 at 10:01 pm
Having Michael Eric Dyson write a book about your album>Anything Jay-z has ever done in his career. I dare you to argue. And please dont use Jay-Z’s financial empire as the foundation of your argument. Because when your under the earth, if all people can say is “Man, he made alot of money” your legacy aint worth shit. Real talk.
^co-sign
November 7th, 2009 at 12:30 am
I’m on the watch for this. Peace to the Notorious M.E.D!
November 7th, 2009 at 1:08 am
Let Nas Rock on this one why does everyone have to mention Jay Z when Nas comes up???? Imma buy the book I hopefully its good..
November 7th, 2009 at 4:07 am
Name a rapper that he ain’t influenced. Illmatic is the best hip-hop album since 1994.
November 7th, 2009 at 7:22 am
The Rakim and Nas comparisions had more to do with where they were lyrically for their time than it did with lyrical content and style. Rakim was so far ahead of 90% of the MC’’s during the 86-90 years. (Basically it was always KRS, G. Rap, Kane and Rakim at the top of the food chain in any argument) The way people bickered over who is better Jay-Z or Nas is the same way people bickered over Rakim vs Big Daddy Kane.
I dont think Nas sounds like Rakim at all as an MC but again, I feel it has to do with someone being crowned the greatest thing at that particular time and the amount of “jewels” each MC was dropping.
November 7th, 2009 at 9:15 am
bobbito’s name should have been first. for cultural reasons. hell, even alphabetically. LOL.
November 7th, 2009 at 9:16 am
If you need 3 blueprints to build a dynasty then you’re a fucking terrible architect.
^ ^ classic ether
November 7th, 2009 at 11:04 am
No wonder Dyson was quoting Nas so much the past couple weeks.
He was plugging his book
November 7th, 2009 at 11:44 am
NICE!!!….. This is the best album!!!!….Thought-provoking…I like Nas better than Jay as an MC…
November 7th, 2009 at 1:08 pm
Illmatic is the greatest hip-hop album period.
November 7th, 2009 at 2:46 pm
elgindotcom Says:
November 6th, 2009 at 10:01 pm
Having Michael Eric Dyson write a book about your album>Anything Jay-z has ever done in his career. I dare you to argue. And please dont use Jay-Z’s financial empire as the foundation of your argument. Because when your under the earth, if all people can say is “Man, he made alot of money” your legacy aint worth shit. Real talk.
^ ^
Having Dyson write a book about you doesn’t mean shit either. He’s a fake ass scholar. However, if you had Cornel West write a book about you, then you would actually have an argument. As for Dyson? I’ll pass.
November 8th, 2009 at 1:19 am
word
November 9th, 2009 at 10:49 am
@ Brian…
“fake ass scholar”? what book of his have you read lately…
smh @ clowns writing letters in to XXL thinking they’ve accomplished something…
Dyson is great author and speaker…if you put down XXL for 10 minutes to read something else you would know that…beside Dyson is also working on a book about Jay-Z…
but NAS is the man…