Well, I can’t say I have this deep, meaningful history with Nas’s Illmatic. When I was going through the Best Ever Albums of All Time list on besteveralbums.com back around 2012/13, the album was one of the highest ranking hip-hop albums on there. Now, I wasn’t around in ’94 when Illmatic was released. I couldn’t give an impression of what initial reactions to it were by critics and the fans. But looking at the Wikipedia page, it appeared that it was a very big deal. A “landmark album of East Coast hip hop”, a “masterpiece”, “rhythmic perfection”. Illmatic’s shadow loomed so large that whenever Nas would release a new album, the new stuff would constantly be compared to it. That situation’s died down a little, now. But I’m sure whenever a hip-hop artist has a debut that’s considered a classic and other albums that aren’t as highly-regarded, they referred to as suffering from an “Illmatic situation”. That’s how much influence the album possesses.

It’s actually been a long time since I listened to the album in full. I should revisit it one of these days. I went through Nas’s discography in early 2018, a decision brought on by the release of then-new album NASIR. Although there were tracks from various albums that I thought were cool, the full-album experience on a lot of them couldn’t compare to that of Illmatic. Every album was around an hour long compared to Illmatic’s tight and compact 40-minute length. And even in that relatively short amount of time, Nas covered themes of authenticity, drug violence, his origins, and others with a flow, hunger and energy that was never truly matched in those albums that followed. With the level of maturity he approached each topic with, it’s easy to forget that he started work on the album at the age of 17, with it eventually being released when he was 20.

‘Represent’ is the ninth and penultimate track on the album. I can remember this one being an instant hit for me when I heard it that first time all those years ago. The opening rhythm got my head bopping. Then the ‘Represent, represent’ hook came in, and that was everything I needed, really. What followed were three immense verses from Nas. In the first, he “discusses” life in the projects where any minute could be your last as you could be taken out by anyone including Nas himself alongside the threat of being arrested by the police for pretty much anything. The second sees him describing the kind of person he is, where you’ll see him, what clothes you’ll find him wearing and how he’s fulfilled the rags to riches story. The final verse sees him expand on that latter point, where he emphasises on his satisfaction with the wealth he’s gained and how he could do with even more money. But he also notes that there’s the danger of losing it all. Even if he does, he has his boys from the projects that he knows will always have his back. He shouts them out in the outro; I’m sure some of them are among the people hollering and calling out. But it all revolves around that ‘represent’ hook. You’ve always got to remember where you’re from and the people who helped you when you make it big, and I think it’s a track like this that even raised Nas’s status in the ears of many listeners.