10 Cinematic Connections On Nas’ ‘Illmatic’

1. “The Genesis” samples Wild Style.
Illmatic begins its journey with the sound of an elevated train and samples from Wild Style, the 1982 film that was the first major hip-hop movie. Two men are arguing about something (in the film, we see it’s graffiti) in the sample. “Stop fucking around and be a man… there ain’t nothing out here for you.” says an angry voice. “Oh, yes there is: this!” comes the reply and a hard hitting hip-hop beat.

This scene and sample are critically important to Illmatic. Wild Style was making the argument that young minority men do not need to leave their communities in order to succeed. The graffiti artist was expressing his belief in the power of his brothers, his community, his art and his culture and he didn’t agree that there was “nothing out there” for him. Nas believes in the power of his community and wants their story to be told, just like the graffiti artist.

Check out the full clip below from Wild Style.

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2. “N.Y. State of Mind” references Scarface.
“I’m like Scarface sniffin’ cocaine/Holding an M-16, see with the pen I’m extreme”
Blast off into song two and already Nas is diving deep into tales of drugs and gunfights. The above line is, of course, a reference to the most beloved film in hip-hop: Scarface. The tale of a man who raises himself out of the mud to become a rich and powerful leader is a story many rappers enjoy hearing.

Nas is recounting the climax of Scarface with this line. He positively compares his storytelling ability to Scarface with a nose full of cocaine – both are extremely wild and dangerous.

3. “Life’s a Bitch” was used in the British Drama Fish Tank.
On the song, AZ brings one of the greatest guest verses of all time, and Nas continues his cinematic storytelling as he reveals the details of his 20th birthday: “My physical frame is celebrated ‘cause I made it/One quarter through life some godly-like thing created.”

Fifteen years after it was first released, the song is still popping up in random places. In 2009, it appeared in Michael Fassbender’s gritty British drama Fish Tank. The film lets the entire song play as the 15-year-old female protagonist at the center of the story has an emotional final moment with her mother. Neither the mother nor her daughter is happy, and the song perfectly encapsulates the entire scene: Life’s a bitch.

Check out the scene below.

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4. “Halftime” was originally recorded for the soundtrack to the 1992 film, Zebrahead.
The soundtrack gave hip-hop heads their first look at Nasty Nas (he dropped the “nasty” part soon after) and led to an album deal with Colombia Records. This little-seen movie is about a relationship between a white man and a black woman. If that description sounds a little familiar that’s because Spike Lee released his own interracial drama just a year earlier.

Nas brilliantly connects the two similar films and another Spike Lee movie in one couplet: “You couldn’t catch me in the streets without a ton of reefer/That’s like Malcolm X catching the Jungle Fever.” You won’t find Nas without marijuana just like you won’t find Malcolm X dating white women (even though he actually did before converting to Islam).

5. “Memory Lane (Sittin’ in Da Park)” references the classic film, Cooley High.
“I dropped out of Cooley High, gassed up by a cokehead cutie pie.”
Nas takes us into a flashback to earlier times; he dropped out of high school after finishing 8th grade. Nas was “gassed up” over a young love that also happened to have a cocaine addiction. But Cooley High isn’t actually Nas’ former high school; it’s a reference to the 1975 black cinema classic film of the same title that takes a look at a group of young, black students in a 1970s high school. Nas is comparing his own high school career with the film.

6. The bench scene in Belly pulls from “One Love.”
In 1998, Nas joined DMX in Hype Williams’ first (and still only) feature length film, Belly. The two rappers star as young criminals and best friends who get money through robberies, drug dealing and by any other means necessary. The connection to “One Love” comes late in the film when Nas holds a conversation with a 12-year-old who has already fallen into the web of drugs and crime.

Check out the scene and the third verse of “One Love”; the two are nearly identical. In both, Nas is surprised and disappointed to speak to such a young child who is already so troubled. In the song: “Only 12, tryin’ to tell me that he liked my style.” And in the film: “Shorty was like 12 going on 20. A real loser type nigga, you know? No hope for the future at all.”

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7. “The World Is Yours” references Scarface.
The second major reference to Scarface in only four songs, “The World is Yours” further solidifies Nas’ appreciation of the message of the film; you can achieve anything you want. The world is simply there and waiting for someone to come along and take it. The quote appears on a blimp above Tony Montana just as he’s embarking on his meteoric rise to the top of the world and serves as something of a personal motivator.

Later, the film ends with Tony floating in a bloody pool. The camera rises to reveal his favorite statue, the globe with “the world is yours” in neon lettering, staring down at the bodies and his destroyed mansion. Lyrically, Nas continues with the cinematic motifs as well. He begins his first verse with, “I sip the Dom P, watching Gandhi till I’m charged.” In other words, watching a film about a man fighting against brutal injustice gets Nas ready for his own fights.

8. “Represent” samples a silent film…yep.
We have to go way, way back to find the sample that “Represent” producer DJ Premier used to build the song. The 1924 silent film The Thief of Bagdad (sic) is actually the location of the oldest sample on Illmatic. But how can a silent film be used as a musical sample?

In the days of silent cinema, audiences watched their films and enjoyed the accompaniment of a live orchestra inside the theater. We’re able to enjoy some of these songs (and the reason why DJ Premier ever stumbled across the record) because they were rerecorded by composers years later. Composer Lee Erwin’s theme, “The Thief of Bagdad,” was released on vinyl in 1974, and then somehow wound up in DJ Premier’s hands 20 years later. So in addition to celebrating 20 years of Illmatic, we’re also celebrating the 90th birthday of this sample.

9. On “One Time 4 Your Mind,” Nas paints a scene of watching movies with the homies.
“When I’m chilling, I grab the buddha, get my crew to buy beers/And watch a flick, illin’ and root for the villain, huh”
Nas once again begins his verse with a reference to the movies. This time he lets us know exactly where his loyalties lie when he watches a flick. He and his friends won’t be rooting for the police or the other typical “good guys.” They want to see the “villains” run away with the loot and get to freedom.

Coming from the streets, Nas tells us he identifies with the so-called “criminals,” and as he says on “Memory Lane,” he raps for the, “listeners, bluntheads, fly ladies and prisoners, Henessey-holders and old-school niggas.”

10. The music video for “It Ain’t Hard to Tell” was filmed in the same theater used in Wild Style.
Illmatic began with the sounds of Wild Style, and Nas fittingly ends the album with a closing homage to the film. Parts of the music video were filmed in the same outdoor amphitheater that was used in Wild Style.

Eleven years after Wild Style was released, Nas made sure the world would never overlook the importance of the film when he tied it together with his album. And like shutting the cover on a book, Nas was able to put a final measure of closure on the greatest hip-hop album of all time.

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