Nas’ critically revered "Illmatic" hit record store shelves 30 years ago today. The digital age has ensured that there will never be another album like it.
I know it doesn’t sound like a tech article but it is!
As an Illmatic fan who’s jaded with the streaming landscape, I was ready for some interesting insights into how things have changed but this article was pointless. It was celebrating Illmatic, but the actual argument about technology made no sense.
People aren’t excited for Beyonce/Taylor Swift’s albums to drop because they’re albums. They’re excited to get a large collection of new music. People will always want a collection of music from their favourite artists to drop, and call it whatever you want but that’s all an album is. And Illmatic is one of my favourites of all time, but it’s such a weird and arbitrary place to stop ‘good albums’ at. So many classic albums have come out since 1994, even within hip-hop if you want to be that narrow
As an Illmatic fan who’s jaded with the streaming landscape, I was ready for some interesting insights into how things have changed but this article was pointless. It was celebrating Illmatic, but the actual argument about technology made no sense.
People aren’t excited for Beyonce/Taylor Swift’s albums to drop because they’re albums. They’re excited to get a large collection of new music. People will always want a collection of music from their favourite artists to drop, and call it whatever you want but that’s all an album is. And Illmatic is one of my favourites of all time, but it’s such a weird and arbitrary place to stop ‘good albums’ at. So many classic albums have come out since 1994, even within hip-hop if you want to be that narrow