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Brendan Reeser
Instructor: Malcolm Campbell
English 1101
September 16, 2014
Break Through in the Hip Hop Genre
Hip-hop and Rap is possibly the most scrutinized genre in music today. People view it as
meaningless lyrics accompanied by loud beats that are too chaotic. All the songs talk about are
drugs, violence, money, women, and all kinds of other illegal activities. And the people who
perform these songs are nothing but uneducated thugs. If you asked most middle aged Americans
this would be their opinion. As much as I am a fan of hip-hop, I would have to agree with them.
Most mainstream music is nothing but garbage, sure it is good to get people excited and the
catchy choruses will get stuck in your head but that is about all its good for. I prefer to listen to
real hip-hop that contains lyricism that feels more like poetry than a verbal attack on someone. I
believe that there are becoming less and less true rappers that can truly influence you with their
music. There are still some rappers today that perform the true meaning of hip-hop but the true
style of rap lies in its roots during the early 90s.
The 1990s was the era that the most recognizable names in hip-hop emerged. Names
such as Tupac, the notorious BIG, Jay-Z, and my personal favorite Nas. Nasir Jones was born in
the Queensbridge projects of Brooklyn. His parents divorced when he was young and he was
never properly raised like so many other children living in under developed neighborhoods. He
dropped out of school in the eighth grade but his education did not end there. Nas focused his
time on something that he was passionate about, creating music. Most of his time was spent in
the studio recording and surrounding himself with rappers that had already been successful in the

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rap industry. At the age of 21 he released his first studio album that would also be his most
successful.

The album Illmatic is widely considered to be the greatest hip-hop album of all time.
Nasir Jones did not know this at the time however. He wrote and recorded the entire album in
less than two months when it can take other rappers years to complete an album. Its quick
completion is most likely due to its delivery. Nas raps about the only thing that he has ever
know, the streets of New York. He tells tales about his struggle growing up in the projects and
having to avoid drugs and violence in his struggle to be successful. The genre that Illmatic
belongs to is hip-hop but there are many different styles within this category. Rap is also a very
broad generalization because every rapper has a different flow or style with which they delivery
their lyrics. There can be two different rappers performing the same lyrics but depending upon
how they deliver the words, it would create a completely different song. The beat of the song is
also a significant factor in categorizing songs in hip-hop. An up-tempo song with lots of drums
and more sporadic bass and treble will have a completely different sound than a song with heavy
deep bass and a simple drum loop. The genre of Illmatic is slower tempo with repetitive beats
that dont feature much of a drop or dramatic change in the melody throughout the song. The

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consistency of beat allows the focus to be on Nass lyricism which is the most important factor in
songs of this genre. The instruments that are featured include mostly drums, keyboards,
electronic loops, and occasionally jazz instruments such as saxophones. The early genre of hiphop was greatly influenced by jazz music that evolved into the music we hear today. Nas pays
homage to his roots by including these instrumentals while also providing a unique style that not
many rappers had. A heavy bass line is always included in the songs on this album which Nas
raps in sync with to provide a flow throughout the song.
What truly sets his music apart is the lyrics. Nas is not just creating songs but hes telling
a story in this album. Illmatic is an album about the early life of Nasir Jones growing up in
Queensbridge. Repeating themes are divorced parents, gang violence, death of relatives and
close friends, woman, lack of money, drugs, lack of a job, and above all trying to escape the
circumstances that you were born into. The album feels so natural and relatable even if you have
not experienced these hardships because of the way that Nas tells the story. Everything that he is
talking about in his songs is completely legitimate because he has actually experienced these
things first hand. His parents divorced young and his older brother died from a gang shooting.
Several of his childhood friends are also drug dealers and or addicted to drugs. This is why he is
able to speak so effectively about the life in the hood. His flow makes many consider him to be
more of a poet than a rapper that is trying to make songs.
Very few rappers have been able to achieve the level of communication that Nas
incorporates in his songs. Reasonable Doubt is an album by Jay-Z which provides a similar
image of the hood. Sean Carter grew up in a different part of Brooklyn under similar
circumstances as Nas. Reasonable Doubt is his debut studio album about his life growing up
with no father, struggling in school, and having to become a drug dealer to make a living. You

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can see the similarities between the two forms of communication and why they belong in the
same genre of hip-hop music. The lyrics and flow of words is very similar between the two
albums but the beats are different. In Jay-Zs songs he will use beats that are more up-tempo and
sample choruses of singing. Nas uses little to no singing in his songs but the message gets across
all the same. Another album which includes the rags to riches story is Ready to Die by the
Notorious BIG. The song Juicy directly talks about teachers not believing in him having a
future and he didnt even think about having a career in hip-hop. He talks about rapping on the
streets with his friends just for fun, not doing it as a profession. Nas talks about the same topic in
the song Memory Lane when he reminisces about the good times that he had between the
hardships.

Nas wrote the album Illmatic to get himself out of the projects. Rappers will often talk
about the only way to escape the hood is through music or sports. The integrity of education in
underdeveloped neighborhoods is poor. The school systems that are put in place dont care or are
not capable of educating students in the fields that they need to earn jobs in the work force.
Athletics such as football and basketball are ways for gifted individuals to take the talents that
they have a put them to use to make money and gain a better life. Music is another medium that

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people of all social statuses, regardless of race or money, can use to express themselves. Nas
chose to rap as a hoppy because it was fun to him but when he realized that he could use his
talents in poetry to make music that people would buy; he embraced it and used music to hurdle
himself out of the projects. The album was also created to entertain just like all forms of music
are created to do. People enjoyed listing to the rhymes that he was producing along with the
smooth beats. This album means a lot more than entertainment or a way to get money, this album
is dedicated to those who are still in the struggle of getting a pay check and providing for their
families. This album is meant to give them hope that you can make it out of the hood and you
can become successful if you put everything that youve got into it.
This album is speaking directly to the kids; those who see what their parents are going
through and know that their lives will be much of the same. Nas is telling them a story, an
autobiography. He explains all that he has had to go through, the drugs, the violence, dropping
out of school, losing his friends, and not having money to even buy food. Illmatic is a story of
success. Nas is telling the children that if he was able to turn his life around then why cant they.
These children are still young enough where they are at a point in their lives that they have to
make a decision to strive to do great things or fall behind with the rest of the pack and fail like so
many have before them. Millions and millions of people will eventually listen to this album and
hear about the story of Nasir Jones, but will never truly know what it is like. The album also has
the purpose of informing those in middle and upper class America that have no idea what it is
like to live under those circumstances.
Nas uses the only language that he knows, the language that he was raised up on in the
streets of Brooklyn. The language in Illmatic is not proper English by any means. He constantly
uses slang words that people from outside of the hood may not understand. He also uses word

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play where he could take a word with a known meaning and manipulate it to have a completely
different meaning. An example of this is I drop jewels, wear jewels, hope to never run it
With more kicks than a baby in a mother's stomach we uses kicks to describe shoes that he
owns but uses actual kicking of a baby as a metaphor. Like most rappers, Nas uses a great deal of
profanity in his lyrics. This deters a lot of people from listening to his music because they are
against the use that language. They may hear one cuss word and automatically think that the
entire song is garbage. He uses this language because it is what his target audience is familiar
with. He did not write the album for uptight people, he wrote for people with a little bit of grit to
them and those who have been through something difficult in their lives. Most rap songs feature
profanity not because they intend to be rude but because that is how they learned to talk and that
is what their audience is used to hearing.
The medium of hip-hop is the most effective way to get a message across to those who
dont respond to conventional forms of education. If someone was to perform a lecture or write a
book about making it out of the projects, there would probably only be a handful of kids who
read or listen to it and actually get something out of it. Music, music is everywhere in the world.
If someone hears a song that they like theyll tell their friends about it. And if their friends like it
then theyll tell more people about it. Soon enough it will be on the radio for everybody to hear.
Music is one of the fastest ways to communicate, especially to youth because of how popular
music is to them. Hip-hop and rap is also primarily the genre of music that people living in
projects such as Queensbridge listen to.
The only other genre that would be as effective for telling a story and motivating people
is film. The album Illmatic could easily be transformed into a movie. The film could be a
personal story about Nas himself growing up in Queensbridge or any child growing up in one of

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the many poor projects in America. The lyrics would change into being stage directions because
Nas is describing the events that took place in his life. Lines for the actors would have to be
written and because it is a film the words would not flow as well and there would not be the
clever word play that you experience in the album. The art of poetry that Nas is so revered for
would be lost. The film would ultimately be more serious than the album because the audience
would get an actual visual of drug use, poverty, and perhaps even people dying. Nas uses
metaphors and tricky wordplay to give the details of his stressful life while also entertaining you.
The audience for the film may change slightly to those who havent seen the projects before and
are fascinated with it because they dont know anything about what actually goes on. I believe
that a film would inform and get Nass message across just as well as the album.
The album Illmatic belongs to the genre of hip-hop and rap that tells a story and has
meaning. Most hip-hop today has lost the value that it was originally founded on. Albums such
as Illmatic, Reasonable Doubt, and Ready to Die preserve the roots of the hip-hop genre and will
be around for many generations to enjoy.

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Memory Lane (Sittin' in Da Park)

Nas
Produced By: DJ Premier

[Verse 1]
I rap for listeners, bluntheads, fly ladies and prisoners
Henessey-holders and old-school niggas, then I be dissing
A unofficial that smoke Woolie Thai
I dropped out of Cooley High, gassed up by a cokehead cutie pie
Jungle survivor, fuck who's the live-er
My man put the battery in my back, a difference from Energizer
Sentence begins indented with formality
My duration's infinite, moneywise or physiology
Poetry, that's a part of me, retardedly bop
I drop the ancient manifested hip-hop straight off the block
I reminisce on park jams, my man was shot for his sheep coat
Chocolate blunts make me see him drop in my weed smoke
It's real, grew up in trife life, the times of white lines
The hype pipes, murderous nighttimes and knife fights invite crimes
Chill on the block with Cognac, hold strap
With my peeps that's into drug money, market into rap
No sign of the beast in the blue Chrysler, I guess that means peace
For niggas no sheisty vice to just snipe ya

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Start off the dice-rolling mats for craps to cee-lo

With side-bets, I roll a deuce, nothing below (Peace God!)
Peace God -- now the shit is explained
I'm taking niggas on a trip straight through memory lane
It's like that y'all

[Hook]
"Now let me take a trip down memory lane"
"Coming outta Queensbridge"

[Verse 2]
One for the money
Two for pussy and foreign cars
Three for Aliz, niggas deceased or behind bars
I rap divine, God, check the prognosis: is it real or showbiz?
My window faces shootouts, drug overdoses
Live amongst no roses, only the drama, for real
A nickel-plate is my fate, my medicine is the ganja
Here's my basis, my razor embraces, many faces
Your telephone blown, black stitches or fat shoelaces
Peoples are petro, dramatic automatic .44 I let blow
And back down po-po when I'm vexed so
My pen taps the paper then my brain's blank

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I see dark streets, hustling brothers who keep the same rank
Pumping for something, some'll prosper, some fail
Judges hanging niggas, uncorrect bails for direct sales
My intellect prevails from a hanging cross with nails
I reinforce the frail, with lyrics that's real
Word to Christ, a disciple of streets, trifle on beats
I decipher prophecies through a mic and say peace
I hung around the older crews while they sling smack to dingbats
They spoke of Fat Cat, that nigga's name made bell rings, black
Some fiends scream, about Supreme Team, a Jamaica Queens thing
Uptown was Alpo, son, heard he was kingpin, yo
Fuck "rap is real", watch the herbs stand still
Never talking to snakes cause the words of man kill
True in the game, as long as blood is blue in my veins
I pour my Heineken brew to my deceased crew on memory lane