When was the last time you bought a hip-hop magazine? Basically, I never buy new hip-hop magazines but I had to make an exception for the new XXL April 2009 Issue. In the beginning of this month when the magazine cover was revealed, I noticed that there was going to be an article commemorating the 15th Anniversary of Nas's Classic 1994 LP "Illmatic". With subtitles of DJ Premier, Large Pro, Pete Rock, & Q-Tip, I knew that it was going to be worth the reading.Yesterday, after copping the issue, I immediately skipped to the "Illmatic" article. I was stunned by seeing these old hi-res '94 pictures of Nas; there's a picture of Premier, Large Pro, Faith, Nas, Q-Tip, & L.E.S in the studio. I would like to thanks Timmotep Aku, Carl Chery, Clover Hope, Rob Markman, Starrene Rhett, Anslem Samuel for taking a trip down to memory lane and compiling a classic article on a perfect album. Below are all the representers who each took their time to talk on the making-of of their incredible work on the track which they appeared on. This isn't something that you've seen before, you will learn a lot of new trivia... Below that is the scan of the article.
Representers
- Nas
- Jungle
- Faith Newman-Orbach(Executive Producer)
- MC Serch
- DJ Premier
- Large Professor
- L.E.S.
- AZ
- Olu Dara
- Pete Rock
- T La Rock
- Busta Rhymes
- Grand Wizard
- Q-Tip
Make sure to support this issue by buying it at your local bookstore. This is the type of issue that will truly become a collectible. There are other noteworthy articles included in the issue that are worth reading after "Illmatic."
-- Thomas V
Editor's Note: Don't forget to grab today's other exclusive: Rakim "The Cellar EP".
This is definitely a great read, and an excellent resource/artifact. Thanks Thomas. You saved me $5 and a walk to the Ay-Rab store.
ReplyDeleteSome months ago I decided to no longer buy the XXL, now i gotta make an exception i think.
ReplyDeleteThey also had similar articles on "Reasonable Doubt" and DMX' 1st album that were also good reads
I read the article from the actual magazine (I still subscribe to some). You're right - it is great, but why bother saying "support" XXL if you've SCANNED the whole thing? Why not scan, say the first 2 pages, and let your readers in fact support the mag. Just saying.
ReplyDeleteBlackgirlnamedbecky - because to be quite frank, nobody gives a flying fuck about that magazine, as they have been on a downward slide in terms of quality and profitability for half a decade. Just because they occasionally attempt to put together a quality piece doesn't mean we should have to shell out 4 bucks for their now-emaciated shit rag. Too little, too late from them. If there are people out there who are so enamored with the article and the magazine, a pdf file won't suffice, so they;ll buy it anyway. I would be willing to bet we gave these hacks more sales than we took away.
ReplyDeleteI'm one of those people that ran to the store to cop it after we published the blog. Then I realize the magazine was chopped in half and has nothing to offer other than those 4 pages. Nas wasn't even on the cover so for $5 am I gonna buy it? I decided against it.
ReplyDeleteThe thing is I wouldn't have ever thought about copping it or even had that motivation to go to the store and pick it up if not for our article on it. A page is not worth $1.25 in this economy.
Yeah, I would not have even checked for that XXL had it not been for the T.R.O.Y. post about it. After reading, I immediately went to the store and copped it, just to have the physical copy.
ReplyDelete