Nas Celebrates 30th Anniversary With New Merch
To commemorate the 30th anniversary of his groundbreaking debut album Illmatic, Nas is launching an exciting new line of merchandise!
The pieces honor his Queensbridge origins, which are so eloquently depicted in the music, in addition to the highly regarded compositions. “Nas’ debut album ‘Illmatic’ is the crown jewel of the mid-90s classics that still define the genre; unlike other albums released in its wake, ‘Illmatic’ was the game-changer that forever transformed the landscape of East Coast hip-hop,” the New York Senate said in honor of Illmatic.
Artists Andrew Agutos, Esteban Whiteside, Rushad Kolah, and Samborghini have all painted and drawn each piece of art in the collection by hand. Kiran Goraya Ilic is in charge of creative direction. Carlos Valdez provided art direction through Bravado UMG. The pieces’ print positioning has been carefully considered in order to enhance the final result and give a classic a modern twist. 30 years to the day that Illmatic rocked the music industry, on April 19, all products will be available exclusively on Nas’ e-com.
Nas Celebrates Illmatic
The first studio album by American rapper Nas is titled Illmatic. Columbia Records released it on April 19, 1994. DJ Premier, Large Professor, Pete Rock, Q-Tip, L.E.S., and Nas himself produced the album. Illmatic, a hardcore hip hop record, is a record that has multisyllabic internal rhymes and inner-city stories inspired by Nas’s upbringing in Queens, New York City’s Queensbridge Houses. The album sold 63,000 copies in its first week of release and debuted at number 12 on the US Billboard 200 list. Today’s hip-hop artists credit Nas’s writing and the album! It also helped revive the New York City rap scene and brought several new creative trends to the area.
One of the leading singles of the album, Halftime, has an upbeat tempo that matches Nas’s lyricism and flow. Nas references historical figures like Malcolm X and give shoutouts to his neighborhood and the struggle that he endured growing up there. Another single off of the album called “The World Is Yours” is considered “one of the greatest hip-hop songs ever recorded” from Live About. In addition, the album became so culturally significant that it is in the National Recording Registry. Nas has put his mark on the music industry since his debut! The fact that artists today credit him and his debut album for inspiration is worth celebrating!
Featured Image by Michele Marie PR