Nas: Time Is Illmatic

STAR RATING: ***** Saturday Night **** Friday Night *** Friday Morning ** Sunday Night * Monday Morning

To mark the twentieth anniversary of it's release last year, Nas's Illmatic was re-released for a new generation of hip hop fans to discover. Having recognised Nas as one of my more favoured hip hop performers, I brought a copy myself, and it's not hard to see why it put the musical genre on the map quite as much as it did. He's definitely one of mine, and it would seem many other, people's favourite rap performers, and coinciding with the album, it seems this equally timely and more revealing documentary was also released, delving in to the history of Nas and how his musical influences probably dated back further even than his birth, with his father an accomplished jazz performer, providing him with an inspiration that would propel him away from an almost predestined life of crime to a positive, outspoken role model to millions of fans.

Although he was another rapper who grew up in 'the projects', surrounded by crime in Queensbridge, New York, we learn that Nas enjoyed a more cultured, educated living environment at home than probably the vast majority of those around him did, with access to literature and poetry books from his teacher mother, to the point where his own father supported him in his decision to drop out of school early, feeling unchallenged and uncared for in the education system. Then an unforeseen tragic event propelled him to put everything in to his ambition as a hip hop artist, and by his late teens, he'd wowed the right people, made the right connections and before he knew it, his titular album was on the shelves. As the driving force of the documentary, we delve in to the social significance and emotional resonance behind each of the tracks, gaining insight in to what made the album such an enduring masterpiece.

It's all wrapped up nice and smoothly, at just over seventy minutes, cramming a lot of interesting information in to such a short time frame. It's no less a labour of love, a revealing insight in to one of the more articulate, intriguing, hard hitting and distinctive icons of the hip hop genre. ****

Although I had heard positive reviews for this rap documentary, I held off from watching it because I assumed it would be a puff piece of sorts – probably very well made but ultimately filled with the hype and bravado that most of hip-hop seems to bring. It was a very pleasant surprise then to find that it was really nothing of the sort. Outside of a few aspects which can be forgiven, what we actually get is a film that is surprisingly close to Nas and his family, and looks at the root to that album, rather than specifically celebrating the album itself.

The nature of the film will mean that, like me, you probably will sync Illmatic to your ipod, or put on the CD as the credits are still rolling, because there is plenty of the music and contributions to say what an influence it was, but I think for most viewers all of this will be stuff they already knew. What makes the film of value then is that it takes its time to wander into the past. I am a casual fan of hip-hop, but generally do not know much more beyond the music, so for me it was interesting to spend time with Nas' brother and father, to understand more about the environment they grew up in, and the things they had to process and deal with. The film is not the most insightful, but it is certainly a lot deeper than I had expected, and there are moments where you can see the impact on Nas and his family, even to look back on events is tough on them.

The contributions vary through the film. At first there is a fairly typical spread of talking heads saying positive things, but after this the film does focus on Nas and in particular Jungle; there is a certain amount of guardedness about them perhaps, but they are also open about their past, and willing to be affected by what was and what could have been – no tears or great emotion, but you do get the feeling that they are being themselves rather than carefully marketed images, The film is technically well put together, with a good mix of photographs, archive footage, and current material, and although it is short at only 70- odd minutes, it does feel like it gets a lot in there in that time.

I guess those with no interest or knowledge of Nas or his music will not have too much to hook onto, but for even the casual viewer such as myself, this nor only captures why Illmatic was important, but also gives a good base of background to the man, his achievement, and his background – all of which is pretty interesting and very well presented here.

When the album Illmatic is brought up in conversation it is often described as one of the greatest Hip Hop Albums of all time. If you are a fan of Hip Hop then there is an extremely good chance that you see Illmatic as a standout album.

This documentary is not just about that album specifically. It is the focal point but it does often branch off from this and takes you back into the childhood of Nas and explains how he got into Music. The majority of the story is told by Nas's father, his brother & Nas himself through various interviews. We are shown clips from concerts, old and new, interviews producers, hip hop artists & old friends of Nas. Nas - time is Illmatic is an entertaining watch and offers a glimpse into Nas's childhood and early music career but that is all this documentary offers. If this is your genre then it is certainly worth a watch but as a documentary it isn't that impressive.

Illmatic is a fantastic album and this documentary supports the album very well, 20 years on it is still, in my eyes at least, one of the best Hip Hop albums ever created.

8/10

(Taken from my letterboxd account: http://letterboxd.com/08lc3/)

Damn.

I want this review to be the longest one I've ever written but it's one of those films that I have so much that I want to say that I'm too overcome to be able to do justice to my feelings and rating.

First of all, I love Nas' music. 'Illmatic' is probably my favourite hip-hop album. It's the only hip-hop album where I like every song on it. Sure there are better and worse ones, but they're all better than great. The tracks on Illmatic are perfect. They're all diverse and all contain various messages and social commentaries. It's a perfect inside into that lifestyle. That is exactly what the documentary encapsulates as well. It frequently contains sections about the relevance of those tracks, and the inspirations Nas found when writing them.

The stories of the inspirations for these songs are just perfect. These songs aren't soulless cash-ins, they're authentic stories on life in the hood, and what has happened to these people. It was really profound hearing about Ill Will, and everything that happened to Nas and his friends. When Jungle is looking at the picture of the hood group and going through where they all are, I just knew that everything here was just so apt and perfect.

This is one of those documentaries that only hits this hard when you have a big interest in the source material. As someone who LOVES 'Illmatic', I was bound to love this. I loved the use of each track, and how they all fit in. The editing (both sound and visually) is amazing. It knew exactly when to sync music and stop it. It worked so well.

Hearing the stories behind the songs is probably my favourite part about the documentary. Finding out that Nas' dad did the sax solo for 'Life's A Bitch' really took me aback. I loved that solo and it just came from Nas telling his dad to do whatever he felt like playing. Just fascinating.

Nas changed hip-hop. There cannot be any argument against that. He made songs that actually meant something. He was telling the world exactly what life in the hood is like. The documentary gives a good insight in the effect of that album, and what it took to make it. Everything that brought Nas to 1994.

Nas is king. Illmatic is everything hip-hop should be. This documentary tells you the incredible story of how it happened. The anecdotes are brilliant, and really hold the piece together well. This is a documentary that understands its focus, and doesn't just have famous people saying how great it is. It mainly has Nas and his peers telling the truth about how things were. It's much better than a biopic version could be.

Overall, I think I've written enough to be satisfied. It's taken me over 90 minutes to write this. This documentary perfectly says everything about one of the all-time best hip-hop albums. It tells you everything you need to know, and satisfies any fan of Nas. It's just about the defining era of Nas' career. It doesn't talk about his other albums after. It just looks at before Illmatic, during Illmatic, and then the present day aftermath of Illmatic. It's inspiring, fascinating and just magnificent. A must see for hip-hop fans. The ending to this movie was just breathtaking. I LOVED that ending scene. At first I thought it was forced but once it got going, WHOA, what a smart way to end it.

*deep sigh of relief*

I watched this without knowing much about Nas or why he meant so much to so many people. Watching this made me understand. This documentary did an excellent job of telling Nas' story in a way that made it clear why he was so supported by his community and his fans. He told the story of life in Queensbridge, and he continues to tell that story today, even walking his old streets at several points in this film pointing out locations where he had both good times and horrible things happen to him that shaped him as an artist. Along with the story of the music you get a history of how his music existed in the context of hip hop at the time. There were discussions about where this music came from and what was to come next, really placing "Illmatic" at a place and time in not only hip hop cultural history, but music history.