Illmatic by Nas is a masterpiece of the rap genre and one of the best albums ever made. The run time of the album if perfect, with untouchable lyricism and production that has a dark underground tone that perfectly rounds of the album.

Production on Illmatic is deep, dark and gritty. The beats throughout convey an underground type feeling that causes the lyrics to be compliment, as the main point of Illmatic was to recognise and talk about street crime. Each time a beat is played it conveys the message of the song, but it always has dark undertones regardless. Nas' flow is fantastic and it compliments every beat and also varies on every song, giving the album many diverse flows. This LP contains 10 songs and in no way is bloated and Nas' message is straight to the point and consistently good. Other than the Genesis, which is more of an intro, the album has no bad songs and, Genesis is definitely one of the best intros too. The features are not too famous, but this involvement in the album creates a message that it is not just Nas experiencing street crime, but a whole generation of people. The features have good hooks and verses as well. Every single song is produced perfectly, have diverse flows and great features.

Nas' lyricism in Illmatic is some of the best in hip-hop history. Using his lyrics, Nas creates a vivid picture of how bad crime in New York is. He uses varied rhymes, metaphors, similes, analogies, references and many other techniques to portray the way he sees New York. He uses a multitude of these techniques in every song, highlighting how bad crime is throughout The City that Never Sleeps. Nas also uses a great amount of storytelling adding to the impact of his lyrics, creating a more impactful picture of how terrible this crime is. The versatility of topics relating to crime that Nas has seen is unseen in any other rap album and his delivery is fantastic, as it is presented as a criticism, as well as an experience of crime. The best example of all these factors combined is N.Y. State of Mind. It uses all the best factors I mentioned above and creates one of the best rap songs in history. Every other song uses all the techniques, lyricism and storytelling to create 9 more songs that are perfect in basically every way.

Illmatic is a masterpiece in lyricism, production, storytelling and techniques. Nas uses his personal life to evoke a message of how terrible crime is and there are not many rappers who have topped this masterpiece. Nas' message will always be timeless, even if not applied to New York and it will never really age. Illmatic is a classic and a masterpiece.