Come With Me 2 Hell - DJ Paul & Lord Infamous (1994)

HIP HOP I IGNORED PART 3

Come With Me To Hell wasn't hard to ignore. This was a self released tape from rappers DJ Paul and Lord Infamous (who is also The Scarecrow, I think) with production by DJ Paul and Juicy J. It was released in 1994 with no cover apparently. I found it a few years ago in MP3 form from one of those great sharity blogs like Mutant Sounds (RIP). I was unaware of its Three 6 Mafia connection until I played the first track. Triple 6 mafia get mentioned in several of the songs but I don't think they used that moniker as an artist name until the following year. In 1995 Three 6 Mafia released their now cult classic Mystic Stylez album which I didn't hear until 10 years later. I had been led to believe underground rap was shite. How wrong I was. Rap was like supposed to be the opposite to rock, you know mainstream rock (Hair Metal, Stone Temple Pilots, Nickleback) bad! But underground rock good! (The Fall, The Clean, The Smiths, Slint, Royal Trux etc.). The theory was that the good rap rises to the top and you get to hear it. Another case of don't believe the rock crit consensus. Sure some of the people involved on this recording ended up winning an Academy Award but that was after spending a long time in the rap underground.

Come With Me to Hell begins with Intro. It's psychedelic as hell with kids singing a haunting lullaby reverbed to the hilt with great horror synth and pounding drums. While the rappers tell you to "Come with me to hell." and "Triple 6 Mafia may we burn forever." This should be used as a horror film theme. 1000 Blunts puts us in typical hip hop territory. They're bragging about how much pot they've smoked ie "I think I smoked a thousand blunts." This ain't no slick Dre style production. It's very lo-fi with a little toy organ loop keeping the vibe spooky. Long & Hard is their pornographic tale of fellatio. A great crackling trumpet sample echoes throughout while a languid guitar line flows in and out of the mix. It's minimal and repetitive. Drop It Off Ya Ass dives into the criminal underbelly of hip hop. It's all Glocks, Infra red and dead cops. "Come with me to hell you little bitch and see how we live in the land of the 666." The backing track's got keyboard sounds that could be straight out of a horror flick, John Carpenter Stylee. Lick My Nuts is a reprise of Long and Hard. The title says it all really. Pass The Junt sounds so 2014 it could be DJ Mustard on the beat. It's another ode to one of hip hop's favourite pastimes smoking drugs with classic blunted horn samples that could have come from a 70s dub track.

Side 2 starts off brilliantly with some of the grimiest and most dense sampling I've ever heard. You Ain't Mad Is Ya is truly psychedelic hip hop and wouldn't sound out of place on a New Kingdom LP. "We're gonna take you deeper than 6 feet." All Dirty Hoes lays on a kind of sleazy slow jam vibe but the lyrics are no where near as romantic as the sweet sounds. 187 Invitation is a homicidal poem set to some of the coolest horror soundtrack samples you're ever likely to hear. Some of these sounds remind me of Ghostbox groups like The Focus Group and The Belbury Poly.  It's unique, no one sounded like this, that I knew of, in 94. Its Cummin is another ode to the joys of fellatio. It's quite a catchy tune but you probably don't wanna be singin this one around your mum and dad. "Try on some real nigga lip gloss." Its Cummin keeps the minimal haunted keyboard loops coming, along with scratching and the world's most raw brittle drum machine. Back Against The Wall is like an ultra violent gangster film. All hell breaks loose sonically and lyrically. In between there is almost respite with more ominous synth lines. There's a sample from Ice T's Colours which may have been a sample from a slasher movie, I'm not sure. Back Against The wall is truly terrifying and demented. Shout Outs is just that. They shout out to all their mates in Memphis while unashamedly plugging upcoming tape releases. Takin No Shorts ends the tape and it's like a whole other band with a beautiful backing track that could be off Sesame St. "Layin some pimp ass shit" 70s style. They're still rapping about motherf*%#ing guns but then they start hanging shit on rappers trying to be like Menace II Society (the 93 hood film), possibly even being a little self deprecating. This is entertainment after all.

Come With Me To Hell is an awesome journey into the early 90s Memphis tape/mixtape underground. This isn't some slick state of the art expensive studio shit. It was probably recorded in their mom's bathroom. Not many of these tracks would get you out on the dancefloor. Instead of being funky these tunes creep like a stoned stalker. DJ, Lord and Juicy don't really use overexposed breaks or cliched samples. They tore up the hip hop rule book and made a truly original masterpiece and didn't even bother with a cover! This tape sounds totally relevant and influential today. Lord Infamous died last year of a heart attack, finally in hell.

Remastered cd reissue.

Crunk Gabba & What (ever else)

DJ Snake & Lil Jon - Turn Down For What (via Energy Flash). I always like it when any kind of rave, hardcore or electronic vibe turns up in rap. Do these people even acknowledge Gabba, PCP, Cold Rush, Belgium etc. I know years back Timbaland being very cagey about his influences. Many people at the time were thinking it had to be comin from jungle, drum n bass etc. IE the UK. I don't think he ever owned up to it though. It's like Americans can't stand having to acknowledge anything European influenced. Like it's un-American or in some way or weakens their art. Funny considering Afrika Bambaataa's Planet Rock sampled Krafwerk in the very early days of hip hop (1982). DJ Snake is French though, I think, so he's kinda bringin the Euro vibe like Gesaffelstein did with Kanye last year.

Anyway I was thinking with one of the brands of Lean off the market now, (haven't done the research to see if there are still other brands still making it) what affect is that gonna have on the whole Ratchet/DJ Mustard scene. I guess the track above is one direction, kind of like a noise made for Meth-Heads. The pummel with surely appeal to people mixing alcohol & Meth & whatever else. Ecstasy and pot ain't goin nowhere though. Perhaps the downer euphoria will dwindle a little. Stay tuned.

Lean & Mustard

Mustard On The Beat (at) Ho(me) still. Love the bass pressure in this one. Doesn't August Alsina (and Mustard brings his a game on the beat) just capture losing it perfectly, that point where you're so wasted (sorry faded), just when it's all gonna go pear shaped. Cough mixture be the drink of choice among this lot, Reynolds reliably informs me. I was comparing the wasted sound of this scene' tunes to being sonically akin to mixing painkillaz (and by that I mean codeine or Oxycontin) with alcohol & whatever else. Dextromethorphan is a popular ingredient in cough medicine in America, which in high doses can causes hallucinations. But the cough mixture of choice is the one containing codeine and promethazine. It all reminds me of a story Jim Carroll wrote in his book Forced Entries, if memory serves, about the New York scene in the early 70s. When there was a heroin shortage they'd get into the cough syrup with the codeine in it, just get it over the counter at the Chemist (Aussie term for drugstore) no questions asked.  There was a great Townes Van Zandt track too, Waitin' around to die, that was a love song of sorts to one his many drugs of choice codeine. Now kids and the rappers mix these syrups with soda and call it lean which my brother in law told me about last year. I think I was asking him "what do you reckon is in those red polystyrene cups in all these music videos?" He then said "You mean lean." I went "right" thinking it was something like what the Peruvian musicians have been into since the 60s, Chicha. Chicha being an old Inca alcoholic drink that was used in rituals and festivals. Anyway I was a bit off the mark. Actavis (the pharmaceutical company) even pulled the plug on production on their Promethazine Codeine syrup a month ago due to its growing cult and the way it's being abused. Lean apparently causes euphoria along with motor skill impairment and a dissociative feeling from other parts of the body("I can't feel my face, I'm so numb") . Some rappers have even been overdose victims of Lean mixed with other substances. The promethazine is the catalyst for intensifying the euphoric effects of the codeine in your system. There's a whole list of other slang names for Lean: Purple Drank, Sizzurp, Texas Tea etc.

A cumbia/Chica tune from 1970. Sex Drugs & Tropical Chicha! Good vibes on this one man.

Ha Ha Drake Mofos

Well here Drake sets us straight with what's up with his sex, drugs & Rap. Who knows what they're smokin though? It's not something I've probably even heard of, let alone seen, let alone smoked (getting old). Sex high on pot was always a pretty dodgy and preposterous proposition, usually completely out of the question, so I'm guessing it's not that.

On another tangent has anyone ever noticed some of Drake's trax are a lot like Burial. They seem to have remnants of the hardcore continuum scattered throughout, is that just me? Never read a review on him so I wouldn't know if people are hip to that. Burial could have produced Nothing Was The Same for all I know. It's probably just both artists using the same musical equipment and coming up with a similar feel despite being from different traditions. I must admit the only Drake tune I knew before listening to this album was this really bloody annoying video that was on channel V every 5 minutes. So I couldn't stand him. In fact I would switch the telly off if it came on. Sonically diggin this LP a lot. Dunno 'bout the words yet though. He doesn't seem very cool but hey that hasn't stopped Kanye being an erratic genius.

Sex Drugs & Ratchet

DJ Mustard's still on the beat round these parts. Reynolds mentions a few more here This one I can't deny. I love that minimal spooky fade out at the end but Mustard makes spooky a 'subdued mood of depressive hedonism.'* That's the best description I've heard so far of this sub genre of a sub genre.

Mustard has turned me around on other things. I couldn't get into this at all when it came out. I knew the sonic production was v cool. I thought it was depressing though but now I get that downer euphoric vibe. Like painkillaz and alcohol. I'm not even sure what other drugs this relates to weed, ice? A heroin-y E maybe? Anyway it's a hell of a vibe. Only took me 2 years to get it. Jesus what next Drake?

Actually It was probably this tune that got me to go back and listen to Kendrick Lamar's Good Kid... cd. How is Mustard not on this beat?

I hated Gas Pedal when I first heard it, then hated it again when I gave it another go. I think it was Reynolds who said (and I agreed) it was just a rip off of Snoop & Pharell's Drop It like Hot but then he had it in his singles of the year. So I gave it another go, still hated it. 5 months later now I'm fully into it. The druggy vibe can't be too wasted because they still be horny dudes. The vibe of this song encompasses a panopoly of drugs and alcohol while being on the prowl for some tush (kids, that means booty).

Then there's magic! (I know this is a bit off topic but it kinda fits.) I get chills every time I hear this. I mean it's pop, it's got hooks and it's so fucking anthemic I can't believe it. And I hate that whole New York cultural tyranny thing, makes me never wanna go there. But this song is so good it doesn't matter what it's about. It could be about my dog doing a poo and I'd still get chills every time I heard it. Z does mention E's, well MDMA during this track so that gives you an idea of where the euphoria in this lies. I mean apart from the songwriting and musical arrangement which is enough. A bit like MBV's best tunes it's so euphoric it feels like your on drugs anyway. This is the sonic equivalent of Champagne and an E chased with a few lines of coke.

Also I think this maybe the best pop tune in history.

*That's me paraphrasing a Simon Reynolds quote.

True Detective Trax

Very surprised to hear this tune at the end of a True Detective episode. They don't make em like this anymore and actually they hardly made them like this at all. Sludgy psychedelia. My old band used to do a cover of this but we couldn't match this vibe one bit. Untouchable and bloody weird and bloody great.

Then there was this at the end of episode 4 and it fitted perfectly with the intense mayhem that had just occurred on screen. It made me remember how excellent Grinderman really are/were? I think what gave Grinderman their fresh new edge and the the feeling of it being a separate entity from The Bad Seeds was that it was Nick Cave's first time playing guitar (I think) on a record. They were like a brand new band despite containing four Bad Seeds members.

Loved hearing this one at the end of episode 7. I'm not really sure of its thematic connection but who cares? This is the great classic version of Lungs from his Townes Van Zandt LP from 1969. It doesn't get much better than this!

The music person on the show must have had fun putting these tunes on the show, well in the end credits actually. Funnily enough I can't stand the theme tune. It's like some z grade attempt at a Nancy & Lee song. What was this band thinking 'Our contribution to music is going to be a way lesser version of a classic duo, that's the best we can do.' Well you know what don't bloody bother, we don't need to hear it! They could have got, I dunno, Mick Harvey and Anita Lane to do the theme or just use an original Nancy & Lee track. Willie Nelson & Dolly Parton, how good what that have been? 13th Floor Elevators' Kingdom of Heaven would have done just fine. Aren't there a bunch of great musicians from Louisiana they could have used? Kevin Gates and Lil Boosie in the rap world and I'm sure there's some great folk/country musicians! Anyway it was great hear these three classics in the finest show of 2014 and one of the greatest shows on the telly ever.

Grip It! On That Other Level - Ghetto Boys (1989)

HIP HOP I IGNORED PART 2

Now this is some hip hop I can really get behind. Once I put on this cd I instantly started liking it. Ghetto Boys sound is not unlike their peers Public Enemy, NWA and Ice T, so I guess it had an immediate familiarity. Grip It! On That Other Level has that classic late 80s old school sound, so damn funky and full of great stories that are masterfully delivered. So this album is quickly heading up my hip hop classics list, with the bullet. Now, I remember reading about Ghetto Boys in the NME and Melody Maker in the late 80s. They were described as the most morally bankrupt bunch of thugs in hip hop. That statement should have had me running to my local record shop in Grafton to order a copy of this album ASAP (gee I was a sensitive lil' youngster). Still it wasn't hard to avoid them with no national JJJ radio at the time and I don't recall them getting played on Rage or The Factory which was the home of all things rap back then. The press led me to believe they were arseholes of the highest order. Some of the themes included rape, murder and even cannibalism. I do recall some journos being conflicted though because their beats were so damn good, they're songs were undeniable. A couple of years later living in Melbourne I remember talking to a friend and she asked me 'Should I keep going out with this guy? All he listens to is Geto Boys and it's all bitches and hoes.' I don't recall what my response was though. Anyway this was the first time I'd sat down to listen to a Ghetto Boys LP and I wasn't sure if I'd heard any of the tunes or not.

Grip It! On That Other level was their second album and it was issued in 1989. This album is usually considered their best. They were from Texas which was pretty different from the usual New York and LA. I guess they put southern rap on the map. In many ways they helped pioneer gangsta rap and horrorcore. Some of the samples here had already been around the block a few times such as Curtis Mayfield, Incredible Bongo Band and Dennis Coffey. They also sampled stalwarts Parliament and James Brown. Surprisingly they also sampled such white rock as Pink Floyd and The Steve Miller Band. Not forgetting a smattering of dialogue samples from the movie Scarface. I don't think Grip It! was particularly successful upon its initial release but became a sleeper hit, eventually selling hundreds of thousands of copies. In retrospect it has become a canonical album appearing on many lists of classic rap records. It was also repackaged with some trax remixed and released under the title of Geto Boys, put out by Def Jam the following year. This also must have coincided with the spelling change from Ghetto Boys to Geto Boys

It starts off in classy stylee with Do It Like G.O. The beats are gold with samples of Superfly, Apache and Scorpio (all staple breaks from the original NY street parties). Niggas, KK, bitches, guns, politics, mo-fos, racism and black history are all mentioned in this opening tune so they pretty much lay it all on the line from the beginning. Gangster Of Love is next and its a filthy tune that's perhaps a little misogynist. It comes with a pro condom message though with much bragging of how many chicks he can do in one night. There might event be a little romance amongst the nastiness. The sample of Steve Miller Band's 'Gangster Of Love' line from The Joker, as well as the guitar part, is genius and makes this pornographic tale so damn catchy. Gangster Of Love has got to be one of the greatest hip hop tracks ever recorded. Talkin Loud Ain't Sayin Nothin is a bleak ghetto tale. Its rapped with great aggressive gusto about having integrity and hating bullshit artists and pretty much everyone and everything. It also contains a choice James Brown sample. Read These Nikes is pretty self explanatory. Its a violent thug anthem  'Remorse what the f*%# is that? I'll beat your your mamas ass then go and get a six pack!' Size Ain't Shit is a brag about being scrawny but having a big dick, a big gun, a jail history etc. with a brilliant keyboard line that wouldn't be out of place on an an acid house or bleep and bass tune. Seek and destroy has the funkiest of beats with fabulous def rhymes like something from a rap battle. As stated several times during the track this is a dope jam and they even mention peace a couple of times?!

So that's halfway but I don't even think this was ever released on vinyl. Anyway the second half starts with a defence of Public Enemy. No Sell Out is a conspiracy theory about black music being kept down by the industry. I recall at some stage in this era Public Enemy's Prof Griff being accused of antisemitism. I can't recall if this claim was true or not. They even sample their hero's Fight The Power. Let A Ho Be A Ho could be a feminist manifesto or most probably misogyny of the worst kind. Scarface is like an ultra violent 80s movie in rap form. This is rap story telling in excellis with great minimal beats courtesy of James Brown I think. Life In The Fast Lane has a sweet Parliament sample. Harmonica really suits this funky disco jam.  There should be more harmonica in rap it really works well. This tune is a real old school 'day in the life of the ghettto' jam, reminding me a little of Grandmaster Flash & The Furious Five and it's absolutely brilliant. Trigga Happy Nigga is a party jam complete with exciting band intro and Al Pacino Scarface samples galore. Its funny how offended people were by this kind of thing when these kind of of stories were all over the tv, movies and the news. I always looked at rap as similar to movies like Westerns, Gangster films, Horror flix, blue movies etc. but for some reason people thought this was real (some of it was I guess), I assume because it's usually sung in the first person. People were quite willing to watch something like Rambo but were frightened by hip hop tunes with similar themes. People are strange. Mind of A Lunatic is like an aural video nasty. This track with its themes of insanity, mass murder, rape, attempted suicide and asylums is dark and horrific but it's set to a beautiful funk track. This was probably The Geto Boys at their most controversial. When you compare it though to some of the mid 90s underground Memphis rap is almost seems quaint now.

In the end they're nowhere near as morally bereft as I was led to believe. There's Black Power, advocacy for contraception, integrity and even mentions of peace. Geto Boys are also hilarious and compared to some of today's rappers they are nowhere near as amoral or wasted. There was militaristic aggression about them. Not forgetting these are some of the dopest hip hop jams ever committed to tape. I gotta say this is a bloody classic album, one of the best hip hop has to offer. I'm glad I had this idea for this series just to hear this gem.

Mustard On The Beat Hoe

Mustard on the beat (at) ho(me) non stop. After Reynolds recent posts on all things Ratchet & B I'm on a Mustard bender. Love this one a lot it's got such a great pop chorus with a harp I think. Maybe not for mainstream radio with those lyrics but fuck me it's pop-tastic.

How bout this one?! It sounds like there's a sample of Laika circa Sound Of Satellites in there. Well it's the same keyboard sound/model anyway, last heard in a section of a Peaking Lights track. It wouldn't surprise me if Dijon was fan of either group. They've got more in common than you might think.

Wow DJ Mustard's even made J-Lo sound good. I'm sure she's had other good trax though, none come to mind at this moment.

This is sweet and yet so filthy. "Gettin faded till we trip." Lovin Schoolboy Q's guest spot on this. Best tune of 2014?

Speaking of best tunes of 2014 maybe this has pipped Tinashe at the post. The sound of being wasted/loved up science fiction stylee. Mustard not on this beat hoe.

Aural Splendour....and well I could keep posting Mustard trax all nite because there's way more.

VHS Head

A new VHS Head album Persistence Of Vision is on its way and I'm looking forward to its release. His first record Trademark Ribbons Of Gold was released in 2010 just before I started my blog. I couldn't believe it wasn't all over the Internet and in end of year lists. I guess it didn't fit anywhere in particular. It was 2010 and it didn't fit into its genres of the time like dubstep or whatever else was hip at the time. Its a frantic and experimental album. I understand it was made from samples and snippets of his 80s VHS video collection. In particular VHS Head was fond of the video company logo tunes or as they call them in the biz idents The effect was a bit like having the history of 80s video culture condensed into 64 minutes then thrust at you like an aural assault weapon with barely any time to think. This be not for the faint of heart. It's not unlike something Jon Oswald might get up to but much cooler. It's kinda funky and has an 80s disco vibe with a 2010 flava and I reckon some tunes could even get played out (on the dancefloor). While the sounds aren't arranged in an orderly pastiche 80s fashion, they are meticulously arranged. God knows how long Trademark Ribbons Of Gold took to make but it may be some indication that it's taken VHS Head nearly 5 years to release a new LP. It's A rush for sure and you might recognise bits and pieces here and there, particularly if you loved your 80s VHS trash. Sounds don't really hang around long enough they just fly past you. It does have a nostalgic vibe though. Probably the closest relation to it in current music is the music released on GhostBox (theoretically more than anything). Its retro but its also presented in a futuristic audio blaze. It has become one of my favourite records of the 10s, the 2010s or whatever no one has bothered to name this decade.

I Know nothing about Persistence Of Vision but let's hope
 its just as compelling as Trademark Ribbons Of Gold.

Illmatic - Nas

HIP HOP I IGNORED - PART 1

Illmatic was released in 1994, a particularly fertile year for new music. This is the year two classic trip hop LPs were released Portishead's Dummy and Massive Attack's Protection. Then there were so many UK jungle trax, too numerous to mention. There was also a shitload of British experimental (dare I say Post-Rock before it became a term of derision for American noodling turds) rock happening Laika, Disco Inferno, Bark Psychosis, Stereolab, Pram, Scorn, Flying Saucer Attack, Main and O'rang. Then there was electronic and ambient music Aphex Twin's Selected Ambient Works Vol 2, the Virgin comp Isolationism, Mouse On Mars, Orbital, Autechre, Global Communication's 76.14, Paul Schutze and the list goes on. Nick Cave, Pulp, Boredoms, Peter Jefferies, Polvo, Kristen Hersh and Burzum all released classic records. Then there were the reissues on Blood & Fire Records and Esquival's Space Age Bachelor Pad Music. Plus way way more. Geez that was a good year for music. The two hip hop albums that did get my attention were The Beastie Boys Ill Communication and Snoop's Doggystyle. Along with Illmatic, I also missed Warren G's Regulate.., Jeru The Damaaja's The Sun Rises In The East, Ice Cube, PE and whoever else.

I had already heard Nas albeit without my knowledge on Live At The BBQ, a track from Main Source's classic LP from 91 Breaking Atoms. By the time of Illmatic's release in 94 he was 20 so he'd been a bit of a child prodigy. The line up of producers here was the cream of the 1994 crop. Main Source's Large Prof, Pete Rock, Q-Tip, DJ Premier and LES all had a twiddle of the knobs. This was a new era with the classic old school of PE, NWA etc. and the daisy age fading away and the beginning of Wu Tang Clan's stranglehold in the east and G funks commercial dominance. Nas's timing couldn't have been better, making the LP old school, of its time and somehow timeless all at the same time.

The album begins with the splendid trippy funk beats of The Genesis and Nas is introduced and then it's quickly into the creepin intensity of NY State Of Mind. This tune travels the decay of the NewYork underbelly with drugs, guns, crime and violence. This journey through urban hell is state of the art 94 hip hop where "The city never sleeps, it full of villains and creeps.". Life's a Bitch is a glorious ode to hedonism that features AZ guesting on vocals. This backing track is so fucking smooth with its Gap Band sample and a trumpet comin on like something from Miles Davis's Big Fun. The World Is Yours features, apart from the the usual peerless rhymes, some awesome scratching. Halftime closes side one with its mentions of Jackson 5 and watching Chips (hey I used to love that show, even had Chips pyjamas). His rhymes are astonishing as is the backing trak with its dubby horn samples floating in and out of the mix like puffs of smoke.

Side two or 41st Side South starts with Memory Lane and it's a Premier production containing a Rueben Wilson sample of We're In Love. Choice turntablism blends perfectly with this sweet soul jazz jam. One Love be a daisy age throwback and that ain't no bad thing here. This is a message to his incarcerated bros that's grasping for optimism amongst the darkness and the rhymes keep flowing like nothing before. Large Prof gives One Time 4 Your Mind  a sweet minimal mellow vibe to show off Nas's def rhymes. Represent is another snapshot of a day in the life in the projects of New York, the every day crime and casual violence of it all. Premier gives this track hypnotic psych beats that you'd be happy to keep listening to for an hour. This is the trippiest of hop. It ain't Hard To Tell closes out the album with MJ and Kool & The Gang samples. The dub inflected beatz are a heavenly haze.

At one stage on Illmatic Nas claims he has so many rhymes and its hard to disagree, they just flow and wash over you. You catch new snippets each time you listen. You could listen to this album a hundred times and still not know all the words. This is part of its charm, longevity and timelessness I guess. Illmatic only goes for 40 minutes thus there is no time to really get sick of it. Other artists at the time should have taken note of his quality control. Cds gave rise to too much wasted time and filler. Ironman by Ghostface Killah is a favourite of mine but a minute or two of editing may have had everyone thinking that was the best rap LP of all time but Illmatic is the one most often quoted as that. With a few more listens I might be sayin the same thing but probably not. He's just not mad, smooth, funny or charismatic enough for me. I would however love to hear an instrumental or dub version of Illmatic, that'd be wicked. I haven't heard other Nas records but I feel Illmatic maybe similar to Tricky's Maxinquaye. They were both debuts and both considered masterpieces. So how do you top that? Retire after your first record? Then tour it live 20 years later? That would have been cool. Rappers gotta eat though and apparently he's put out some other good records but Illmatic was always there to haunt him. Luckily now he can tour it for the 20th anniversary and probably make a small fortune. Nobody back then would have dreamt of this concept, let alone it being quite viable and even almost credible.