dedleg.com

This drawing isn’t a tribute to Nas’ seminal 1994 album, which is largely credited as one of the major influences on hardcore rap and landed Nas as one of the pioneers of the 90s New York sound. Nonetheless, just like Illmatic the album, illmatic the adjective is both a blessing and a curse — upon reaching the dizzying heights of illmaticity one is almost assuredly doomed to realize this, and therefore no longer be as such. No man can handle its power for very long — it is like the one ring, infinitely majestic to behold but certain to destroy you in time.

To be illmatic is the final frontier of what is ill. Indeed, it is sicker, nastier than ill. Truly, it is to be beyond ill. It is what everything ill should aspire to be, but by definition, can never be. Basically, ill is the caterpillar to illmatic’s beautiful butterfly.

Fans of Nas would readily claim that Illmatic is, in fact, illmatic. Jay-Z, on the other hand, might disagree. But if you are not illmatic (and Jay-Z is far from illmatic these days) can you truly be an authority on what is? Now that is an illmatic question, and one I’m afraid I am not ill enough to answer.