Today marks the 27th anniversary of New York rapper Nas' crown jewel "Illmatic," the album that changed the game for East Coast hip-hop.
The mid-90s classic rap album remains in hip-hop's Mount Rushmore of stellar albums, but it raises the question, what's Houston's "Illmatic?"
The Southern region as a whole, and Houston more specifically, are often left out of the greater hip-hop landscape and conversations about artists who've changed the game or albums that have stood the test of time.
We opened up the question to our Chron audience, and were able to narrow it down to a few Houston albums.
One user compared New York albums to some of Houston's most prized gems, correlating "Illmatic," OutKast's "Aquemini" and Jay-Z's "The Blueprint" to Houston staples like Scarface's "The Fix" and "The Diary" and UGK's "Ridin' Dirty."
Other fans of the H-Town sound offered up Street Military's "Don't Give A Damn," ABN's self-titled album, and South Park Mexican's "3rd Wish."
The general consensus among Houston hip-hop fans placed one of Scarface's albums as Houston's "Illmatic" — "The Diary" or "The Fix."
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By direct comparison, I believe Scarface's "The Diary" measures up best to Nas' "Illmatic."
For one, both albums were released in 1994 and help to give listeners a cinematic view of their respective realities.
Each album runs for about 40 minutes, give or take, and they both offer stellar storytelling about life in the ghetto. A lot like Nas' "Illmatic" etching his name in the hip-hop history books, "The Diary" is arguably one of Scarafce's best albums. It debuted at No. 2 on the Billboard album chart and went platinum.
While New York is the birthplace of the genre, many have taken notes from H-Town. Nas has said in interviews that Scarface influenced him to tell stories in his music.
Both albums helped to set the standard in rap, receiving the perfect "5 mic rating" from The Source Magazine.
Although the albums discuss a somewhat similar subject matter of life in the ghetto, "The Diary" offers a much more menacing approach, with frightening production from N.O. Joe and Mike Dean paired with Face's deep vocals and threatening narration.
Both albums had three singles — for Face, it was "No Tears," "I Seen a Man Die" and "Hand of the Dead Body." Nas had an impressive three-track run starting with "N.Y. State of Mind," Life's a B****" and "The World is Yours." The two albums also contain one feature each; for "The Diary," Ice Cube makes an appearance on "Hand of a Dead Body," and rapper AZ has a guest verse on "Life's a B****."
Track by track, I'd compare the vivid storytelling of "N.Y. State of Mind" and "I Seen a Man Die." From Queensbridge to Houston, life in the ghetto was made expressively similar by the two rappers.
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April 20, 2021 at 01:41AM
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On the anniversary of 'Illmatic,' we remember another iconic album: 'The Diary' - Chron
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