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Artist News Releases
Nas’s Illmatic to get re-release, behind-scenes DVD
By Aly Barchi | Published on Wednesday 5 February 2014
On 14 Apr, Sony Legacy is to release a special re-pressing of rap star Nas’s celebrated first LP ‘Illmatic’, in this, the year of its 20th anniversary.
‘Illmatic XX’ will carry, as always with this kind of thing, the original tracklisting, and an extra disc of remixes, a live freestyle dating back to a 1993 radio appearance, and the unreleased till now ‘I’m A Villain’. Rap Genius has a b-side ‘Stink Mix’ of ‘It Ain’t Hard To Tell’, which appears on the special release, in preview at this link.
A feature-length film titled ‘Time Is Illmatic’, looking into the conditions in which the original album was made, and linking it to its jazz heritage via Nas’s father Olu Dara, will also be released as a DVD later in the year.
Says Nas: “With ‘Illmatic’, I didn’t think about it. I just did it. I believe everybody has good instincts. Now I’m a man from that past and I’m supremely grateful. There’s a Nigerian proverb ‘What is past is prologue’. I’m here today because of ‘Illmatic'”.
