Nas has reacted to Illmatic being declared the greatest rap album of all time by Billboard.
The rap legend was very happy with the honor, posting a screenshot of his top spot ranking on Instagram and commenting: “Thank you to @billboard! N the people !!! We here #1 illmatic.”
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Nas’ 1994 debut beat out other seminal albums like Dr. Dre‘s The Chronic, Lauryn Hill‘s The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill, OutKast‘s Aquemini and Biggie‘s Life After Death.
The top 10 is rounded out by 2Pac‘s All Eyez On Me, Snoop Dogg‘s Doggystyle, Eric B. and Rakim‘s Paid in Full, JAY-Z‘s The Blueprint and Slick Rick‘s The Great Adventures of Slick Rick.
The list wasn’t without a few controversial picks, though.
Cardi B‘s Invasion of Privacy was ranked at number 29, ahead of JAY-Z’s Reasonable Doubt, Kendrick Lamar‘s good Kid, m.A.A.d city and Eminem‘s The Marshall Mathers LP, among other classics.
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Feathers were also ruffled by Rick Ross‘s Teflon Don, Nicki Minaj‘s Pink Friday and Lil Uzi Vert‘s Luv Is Rage 2 being placed above OutKast‘s Southernplayalisticadillacmuzik, MF DOOM and Madlib‘s Madvillainy and Run-DMC‘s Raising Hell.
Nas recently celebrated the 30th anniversary of Illmatic by paying tribute to the album’s many collaborators.
“Grainy pictures for grainy times. I had a dream I could get my favorite producers to produce on my debut album,” he wrote on Instagram in April. “I knew exactly what I wanted and how it should be. But I didn’t know anyone except for Paul, so I asked him would he connect me to them all.”
He continued: “The cool soul brother that he is helped me line it up. On April 19th we smashed shit. Even tho the album leaked months before the release date we still are apart of music history.
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“Thank you Large Professor (Paul) and Dj Premier who drove into the projects to pick me up a time or two. Qtip, Pete Rock, and my man from The Bridge DJ LES, and my guy AZ who was just coming up himself. And thank you to everyone involved. Friday is the albums 30th. 2 The Listeners- ONE LOVE.”
Nas and Illmatic were also recently honored by the New York State Senate.
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Senator Jamaal T. Bailey said: “What were you doing when you were 20 years old? Many of us were in college. We were finding who we were. Nasir Jones, poetically known as Nas, was making the greatest Hip Hop album of all time, Illmatic.
“Nas has been a Hip Hop griot — the rapid response system for the streets, for lack of a better term. And if you have a top five without Nas in it, you shouldn’t listen to rap music.”
