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#I LOVE THE SMALL TIME SKIPS THIS IS IMPECCABLE STORYTELLING
strange-daughter · 2 years
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Review: Last Night at the Telegraph Club
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by Malinda Lo
Finished this book a few days ago and wanted to share my thoughts.
Spoiler Warning! Review under the cut.
My initial impression whilst reading: This book is interesting, but very long winded - I could do with less minutiae of each and every setting Lily finds herself in. The time jumps are confusing -even with the timelines provided for context- this doesn’t feel like a book that necessitates non-linear storytelling. The plot moves forward at a glacial pace.
   ^obvious simplifications
My impressions now: I take back everything I thought!!!
Writing: It’s often said that there a purpose to everything in a literary work, and that definitely applies to this book. All my complaints? Throw them out the window. That slow progression, the time skips/flashbacks, the slow pace of the book all have their purpose.
Turns out that I’m just an impatient little bitch who is used to liking books based on pure first-readthrough impressions. I like prose that grips me and sweeps me away, I like being immersed and caught up in all the thrills and romance of a plot or setting. There’s no surprise that “Last Night” gave me some trouble while reading. Malinda Lo indulges in the details, she describes settings, characters, and actions thoroughly and she does so with care for an audience that probably isn’t as familiar with Chinese culture as I am. So yes, scene descriptions take some time to get through and you’ll have to weather some outfit descriptions but they all come together to tell a story. Lo paints a rich environment that is as much part of the story (forms as much of the story) as the characters are.
Characters: Let me tell you that I’ve never felt closer to a character than Lily. I’m not Asian American, I didn’t grow up in the US; nevertheless, Lily and Shirley’s feelings about living and growing up in combined but separate cultures still hit close to home.
I related to Lily’s discomfort with certain aspects of liberal Western culture, Shirley’s desire to fit in with American society (the scene at the ice rink? impeccable), I felt the dread and indignation of being othered when characters asked if Lily spoke English. I have felt the simple joy of sharing familiar foods with a friend, like Lily sharing ginger ice cream with Kath or snacks with her brothers, I cried when Judy gave Lily warm buns at the end of the story (aside here: the subtle celebration of our food culture and its importance to us!). I recognized the constant negotiation that takes place when one is born into two cultures, the push and pull of East and West, the pressures and pitfalls of being a ‘model minority’.
(Another small aside: I loved loved loved the use of actual Chinese characters in the text and the use of Chinglish in dialogue! I don’t even speak Canto as Lily and Shirley do in the story but even seeing Chinese characters in a text made me feel so proud. They felt like a declaration: we don’t have to be softened into Pinyin, look at us and become familiar with us, there is nothing foreign or fearful about us.)
Queerness: The story “Last Night” tells is twofold. One is about the Chinese American experience in the 40s and 50s, made most evident through the flashbacks and political tensions running in the background of the story’s present. Our second story is about Lily and Kath and the Telegraph Club.
Dare I repeat myself when I say I’ve never felt closer to a character? Despite the fact that I was born in the early 2000s, Lily’s path to adulthood and discovery of her queerness, her feelings and anxieties closely mirrored my own and, I imagine, many others’.
Growing up Chinese, especially as a woman/daughter, the familial and societal expectations of being a ‘good daughter’ are immense -even breaking the smallest rule can feel like a greater betrayal than it is. Both Lily and Shirley struggle with this idea, though, to Lily, Shirley seems to be much more comfortable straddling this ambiguous line (perks of being the extrovert friend, I guess). Lily has an added burden: the anxiety accompanying self-discovery that seems stupid and unnecessary but reads true to any queer person. The dichotomy of being a ‘good Chinese daughter’ and queer? Just quadruple the panic.
Pride: The subtle thread throughout this novel, which becomes most evident towards the climax of the story, is the feeling of pride and resistance. It is partially engendered through the setting of the Telegraph Club, where queer women felt safe enough to flaunt and express their sexualities and genders. Tommy, Lana, more characters I can’t name but am so grateful for. Lily and Kath’s budding relationship that grows even with the distance between them. All of these women, though unable to show their full selves to society, so fully embraced their truth. I was astounded when Lily stuck to her convictions when she came out to her mother. Lily, who I’d related to for her timidness and insecurity and frustration, who I’d almost fully expected to cave to her mother’s pressure. It was an exhilarating reading moment for me, even when the consequences of Lily’s coming out unfolded, I felt so happy knowing that Lily was brave enough to refuse to lie about herself. In that moment, Lily became a character that I admired, I don’t know if I would have had the courage had I been in the same circumstances.
Malinda Lo writes in her afterword that she wrote this book to bring about more visibility and recognition to Lesbian and Asian American history. It is researched with care and feels like an affirmation to queer women today: here is a piece of your history. So maybe I shouldn’t be so surprised that I, as a biracial person who’s grown up queer and between cultures in the 21st century, have never felt as wholly seen and understood as whilst reading this book. 
(final aside: I’m sure there are more themes and motifs I could talk about but I’ve run out of steam here, TL;DR this is a very good book with important themes)
I’m gonna be honest here, I was pretty apprehensive about picking up this book - as one tends to be when books get pushed on you through ‘booktok’. I wondered if this was just another book whose significance was being overemphasized simply because of its queerness and diversity - the kind of book that is lauded for a laundry list of ‘representative’ traits but ends up missing all the good story beats and feeling entirely hollow. I’m very glad it isn’t. “Last Night at the Telegraph Club” was the very opposite of my expectations: vibrant, emotional, lush, familiar, a book I didn’t know I’d needed. 
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cqlfic · 3 years
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Only Fools Rush In
link to AO3 AUTHOR: mrsronweasley E, 27840 words, 1/1
RELATIONSHIPS: Lan Wangji / Wei Wuxian BLURB: lwj/wwx accidentally get drunk married in vegas
SUMMARY:
Lan Zhan watches as Wei Ying's eyes track down his body until… "Lan Zhan," he says quietly. "What is that on your finger?"
Lan Zhan frowns and looks down. "That," he says, then stops. Something cold trickles down the back of his neck. "That is a ring." His eyes automatically go to Wei Ying's left hand, where… "Wei Ying."
Wei Ying, being the brilliant man that he is, is already ahead of him. "Holy shit."
Lan Zhan clears his throat.
They are in Las Vegas. And now they have rings on their fingers.
There is only one explanation for this. One simple, idiotic, ridiculous explanation.
"We got fucking married?!"
alternate universe - modern setting, woke up married, alcohol use but no sex happens while drunk, mutual pining, getting together, what happens in vegas etc etc
[link to all bookmarks]
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Your best ka dramas?
Oh hello @virginawolffan! Thank you for the ask, here are some of my favourites so far ^^
Stranger---detective+lawyer type stuff (no romance, only friendship and justice! ) this is slow-paced but totally engaging throughout
Hospital playlist --- five doctor friends with different specialisations work through day-to-day professional and personal challenges (very cozy, wholesome, bit more down-to-earth than a lot of kdramas) s2 announced!
Signal---detective stuff with time bending walkie-talkies (s2 announced!)
Into the Ring/the ballot---quirky look at small-time politics(srsly check it out even if you are not into politics at all, it's character driven and works precisely bc of the small scale)
Chicago Typewriter--- a writer is helped out by a literal ghost writer to tell the story of their previous lives, where they were freedom fighters (the past and presents unfolds gradually, there are twists, romance, and a catharctic ending)
Secret love affair--- an older woman finds a working class piano prodigy and helps him to make his music professor husband's life easier...the husband is an ungrateful whiner tho, and the young man is appreciative of her piano talent and guidance...(understated, more intense than your average romance drama, quite artsy at times) Yoo Ah In casually reminding us what great acting looks like
It's okay to not be okay--- about personal growth and dealing with trauma -the characters are mostly compelling (idk there is villain who is a bit??? but gets little of the narrative so it's fine, the psychological stuff is well done from what I can tell, and they use fairy tale symbolism both narratively and visually which is👌)
Crash landing on you--- successful businesswoman accidentally crash lands (duh) in North Kore and tries to find her way home with the help of some unexpected friends ( very good romance drama, I would venture to call it a melo bc there is always a LOT going on, but very well made, no skipped scenes for me) also...Hyun Bin!
Search www--- about female frenemyships and rivalling search engines (idk the topic is not sg that would pull me in but it's well-made with compelling characters)
Memories of the Alhambra--- augmented reality game in Spain goes dangerously glitchy, self-centered ceo has to learn to be valiant...Hyun Bin!In Spain!
Suspicious partner ---rookie lawyer gets falsely implicated in murder, gets out, and tries to find the real killer with the help of her former mentor (has romance) Ji Chang Wook!
W two worlds--- a doctor gets occasionally pulled into the world of her father's ongoing webtoon about a self-made richboy trying to fing his family's killer (has a LOT of twists, meta storytelling, and overall fun ride)
Something in the rain--- understated romance - the characters feel like everyday people and their personal journeys are beautiful imo (slow-paced with a lot of grappling with expectations and their feelings but has a happy end!)
When the weather is nice--- lots of poetry and found community for the cold winter weather (has romance, slow, relatively understated)
A Korean odyssey ---figures from Korean folkolore live in the city and pester the one woman who sees into their world (epic love story from kind of fake dating???, also respectable amount of magic and action in lots of baddie-of-the-week type episodes+ greater story arch) Lee Seung Gi!with a haircut and wardrobe that shouldn't work this well!
Secret life of my secretary---boss-secretary romance (they are both very cute, but there is ofc some angst before a happy end)
Her Private Life ---fake dating romance! a curator is a megafan of an idol in her free time, has to strike up fake relationship with hotshot art director (very good chemistry! 1 somewhat stupid trope - survivable)
Hotel de Luna ---cranky immortal lady w impeccable style has hotel for ghosts, hires human to manage it well enough to fund her spending habits--- problem-of-the-week+overarching storyline (nice costumes,you'll get feels)
Chocolate --- cooking drama! Cook dated doctor's terminally ill friend, now cooks for hospice patients where he works, we meet patients-of-the-week (slowburn, some tangled feelings bc the doc and the cook are ending up together...altogether very good except I didn't quite get a part of the last ep but it's not that big of a deal)
I am not a robot--- reclusive tech ceo has 'allergy' to humans after trauma, group of scientists send in actual girl as 'robot' while they fix the one they actually want to present to him (romance, angst galore)
Vagabond---martial artist tries to find out the truth behing his nephew's death in a plane crash (lots of action, everyman+secret agents) Lee Seung Gi!
Birthcare center --- this is a short drama but sooo satisfyingly kooky! About a postpartum center where new mothers (and fathers) grapple with the unique challenges new parents face
These are the ones off the top of my head but you can always search my kdrama tag for more! I hope you'll find sg you like! :)
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thomcoldman-blog · 6 years
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Review: Iconoclasts
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Iconoclasts, like the subject of a Junji Ito-esque horror, feels like it was made for me, in especially devilish and unsettling ways. It combines a lot of the elements of the classics I adore into one big ambitious, clever, gorgeous mess of a game; the item-meets-environment puzzle-solving of The Legend of Zelda, the looping, layered level designs of Metroid, the smooth traversal you'd expect from games like Mega Man X. It's a game with its eyes to the giants of the action-platformer genre, most nakedly influenced by Metal Slug and Monster World IV, but the truth is I can see so much of a million other games I love in Iconoclasts, it's almost like developer Joakim “konjak” Sandberg has been peering inside my head for ideas of where to take the game next. But you needn't have me tell you that – on the surface, from its Metroid-esque map screen, the enormous SNK-style bullet sprays and the SEGA green hills and blue skies, Iconoclasts indeed looks like a pretender to the throne, another indie retro game tribute-cum-rehash to the heyday of This Sort Of Game. Fortunately, despite first impressions, Iconoclasts has its own tune to sing.
Breaking from tradition should be paramount for any game named after “iconoclasm”, the practice of essentially rebelling against the status-quo. Iconoclasts goes one further, and becomes more of a rumination on the costs and challenges of tearing down the old and the daunting task of facing what may replace it. The story takes this theme and runs with it, depicting a world overseen by a fascistic militia known as the One Concern. This force believe everyone need have their place in the world (naturally, not a place of their own choosing), and will rain down “Penance” upon the homes of anyone who steps out of line. Despite their ranks consisting mostly of visor-clad grunts in grey, they never quite feel like a generic group of baddies, as their grip of terror comes with a religious undertone, spooking the citizens into paranoia of violent reprisal at the hands of the divine being the One Concern follow. As Robin, the daughter of a deceased mechanic now illegally fixing all manner of problems in the settlements, you attract no small amount of disdain from the citizens, who'd much rather you packed in the unlawful assistance and settled down. Naturally, this doesn't quite happen, and Robin soon finds herself becoming a one-woman resistance against the Concern, aided by a handful of similarly aggrieved allies along the way.
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Iconoclasts' storytelling feels distinct and notable for a number of reasons, but first and foremost it's surprising the lengths that Konjak has gone to to develop a layered narrative in a genre where traditionally no-one bothers. The game is still driven largely by its tight platforming and satisfying puzzle-based progression, so with those successfully built you could forgive the plot for being fairly obvious girl-defeats-big-dragon fare. But here, Iconoclasts' feels eager to be seen as newer, fresher and more relevant. The characters aren't happy-go-lucky, but often filled with grief, terror and rage, and it all acts as a compelling motivator beyond filling out the map screen or crafting another upgrade. Having large boss battles with their impressive levels of animation and challenge accompanied by a sense that the characters have been through a great amount to reach the confrontation makes Iconoclasts feel more mature than its inspirations, even as you're throwing down with a giant cat or caterpillar.
The writing is sharp and sweet, not lingering on any point for too long so you're back into the action in due time, whilst never feeling perfunctory enough to make you want to hit Skip anyway. It feels tight; a feeling that permeates through most of the game. It never goes overboard with the number of characters you meet or are expected to remember, and uses them sensibly. The leading villains of the One Concern are the highlight, appearing throughout the entire game more-or-less as recurring showdowns, a constant thorn in Robin's side (and vice versa), and a font of expression for the game's themes of idealogical decadence and implosion. Much as the One Concern bleed the planet dry of its most essential materials, Iconoclasts bleeds its characters dry for drama and intrigue, giving each character exactly enough screentime to make a strong, lasting impression.
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“Making the most of what you have” is a running theme in this game, reflected not just in its use of character but also location and mechanics. Robin is equipped with a stun gun and a wrench, and for a lot of the game, that's more or less it. She eventually gets a bomb launcher, and a third weapon type I won't spoil, but that's her lot. Iconoclasts isn't interested in giving you a huge arsenal, because you don't need it. Instead, the weapons serve primarily as solutions for the game's puzzles, and in combination with a couple of wrench upgrades giving Robin electrical properties, Konjak gets a LOT of mileage out of these tools. Robin's wrench lets her tighten bolts to activate level elements, as well as swing off mid-air bolts to reach higher ground or clear chasms. This movement feels exquisite, with your momentum coming off the bolt never in question, and it combines with a auto-targeting 4-way directional aim on the stun gun for quick, speedy combat scenarios. Puzzles often involve shooting the bombs through tight gaps to create an opening, using electricity to activate switches, moving level elements around via tightening bolts – how to interact with the pieces of a room is rarely in question, but the number of combinations of bomb-powered platforms, mid-air bolts, electrical switches, tight platforming and certain enemies feels limitless thanks to Konjak's incredibly inventive level design.
When you're not using the few tools at your disposal to blast through puzzles, there are plenty of enemies to take down instead. Standard cannon-fodder is found in a lot of rooms, but the game offers a tricky parry move and a mid-air stomp for defeating a variety of enemies that can't all be K.O.'d with a volley of stun-gun blasts. Keeping on brand, it never goes overboard with the number of enemy types, but Iconoclasts is smart enough to make sure each of the 7-or-so areas of the game has their own distinct fauna, such as skull bats in the dank flooded caves or bizarre bipedal cacti in the desert, each with some killer animation tooled for high readability and expressiveness. The bosses are by far the peak of the game's gorgeous sprite-art; screen-filling titans lumbering toward you with equally screen-filling attacks, and lithe assassins striking fast and hard as they leap between the sides of the screen. One highlight is an enormous caterpillar train operating in a circular forest area, chasing you down as you use your wrench to zip along magnetic rails; another, a flaming-hot femme fatale who rains hot death from the sky as you attempt to knock her into electrified railings. Each boss tests your reactions and pattern-reading skills in diverse ways, often offering allies to further differentiate encounters with their own special means of assistance. They're all instantly memorable, from the initial giant mech showdown to a frankly ridiculous ultimate confrontation that might leave you equally perplexed and enthralled.
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Iconoclasts mixes up its combat and movement with its “tweak” mechanic, giving the player three perks to use in their journey. These can include defensive measures, speeding up weapon cooldowns and even making new moves available, like a handy dodge roll. Unfortunately, taking damage causes these abilities to become disabled, only becoming active once more by grabbing “ivory” dropped by enemies or from smashed or fixed objects. Iconoclasts' difficulty level isn't punishingly hard, but it's challenging enough where you'll take your fair share of scrapes, and losing useful skills such as speed boosts or attack boosts due to mistakes can be irritating. This mixed together with the fact tweaks must first be crafted using secret collectibles – and can only be crafted once their blueprints have been obtained – makes the tweak system feel more frustrating and underutilised than it could have been. Acquiring tweaks has enough barriers to entry that removing the ivory requirement wouldn't be overly generous – as it is, it never feels enough of a boon to making secret hunting anything more than its own reward.
That concern aside, Iconoclasts is an impeccable result of its 7-year development history. The story of Iconoclasts argues simply in favour of doing the right thing – not settling for quiet subjugation, not rioting against the status quo just because, but simply identifying something broken, and getting to work fixing it. In looking at the classics of video game yesteryear, Konjak clearly didn't see much broken, but what there was, the game makes a valiant effort at fixing. A tight compelling story, a rejection of empowerment-based progression in favour of a puzzle- and boss- design focus, impeccable movement with smart quality-of-life choices and a look bursting with colour, detail, blood, sweat, tears and love – in sticking to doing a few things really, really well in surprising new ways, Iconoclasts is the most successfully ambitious action-platformer I've played in years, and a game I've been wanting for a long long time.
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Score: 5/5
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rapuvdayear · 5 years
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1994: Illmatic Nas (Columbia)
I guess that 2019 is the year that I officially start feeling old. Illmatic turns 25 today. It’s old enough to rent a car now. I don’t necessarily disagree with the gist of what Lonzo Ball said about the man, but I also don’t think that you can dispute that this is an all-time classic and that Nas’s influence continues to ripple through rap history.
Illmatic is considered by many to be the greatest rap album of all time (just check out the definitions for “illmatic” on Urban Dictionary). I certainly used to be in this camp as well, though I think arguments about GOAT status, while fun, are ultimately pointless due to the stylistic shifts from era to era. Besides, Illmatic might not even be the best rap album from 1994, even if it was the first debut album--and at the time seventh ever--to receive The Source’s coveted “five mics” rating (just wait until September 13 when I’ll be posting another 25th anniversary post about a certified classic)! There will likely be a ton of think pieces written about it by music critics and rap historians who know far more than I do--and you should go read those if you like this album--but I would feel remiss if I didn’t chime in with what Illmatic has meant to me through the years. To wit: I played the first cassette version that I owned so many times that it snapped, I spliced it back together with Scotch tape, and it snapped again. Why a cassette, you may ask? Because this is one of those albums that can be played front to back without any need for skipping; every track is impeccable.
Before I get into the album’s content, there are some important historical details that help place Illmatic in its proper context and explain its lasting significance. In retrospect, 1992-1996(ish) represented a sort of sea change in rap. The playful party songs of the late 70s early 80s had given way to the hypermasculine, guitar-sample-and-808-heavy posturing of the mid-80s, and then the golden age of the late 80s/early 90s that pushed rap in new directions. With a few notable exceptions, every significant figure in rap’s first decade and change was, by and large, associated with New York (this is not to say that there weren’t a ton of awesome, influential local rappers around the country, but rather that nationally recognizable acts--to the extent that there were any--were concentrated in NYC and its environs). By the early 90s, however, the LA scene was producing more interesting, genre-bending, and commercially successful raps, as the G-Funk era was in full effect; The Chronic was released in December 1992, and Doggystyle followed a year later, occupying the top spot on the Billboard 200 for two weeks in a row (Black Sunday, while not G-Funk, was another West Coast success, topping the Billboard charts in August 1993, and the Hieroglyphics and early 2Pac in Oakland were also attracting attention). The New York sound was at that point represented by the Afrocentric jazz-laden grooves of the Native Tongues clique, the funky lyricism of greats like KRS-One, Rakim, Kool G Rap, and Big Daddy Kane, and the boom bap exuberance of groups like Main Source, Pete Rock & CL Smooth, and Gang Starr. A grimier, grittier, “Tims and Hoodies” style had begun to emerge in the early 90s from the Boot Camp Clik, the Hit Squad’s associated acts (Das EFX, Redman, Keith Murray), Onyx, and the Wu-Tang Clan, whose legendary debut Enter the Wu-Tang (36 Chambers) dropped less than 6 months before Illmatic.
Into this landscape stepped Nasir Jones, a 20-year-old up and coming Queensbridge rapper who had generated a lot of excitement among rap fans (at that time still a pretty niche contingent) with his verse on Main Source’s “Live at the Barbeque” in 1991 (he ended up sampling it in the Illmatic intro above). Along with fellow Queensbridge rappers Mobb Deep and with the endorsement of post-Juice Crew Queens mainstays Large Professor and MC Serch, Nas helped to usher in the East Coast’s response to “gangsta rap.” While not as explicitly concerned with gang life as G-Funk was, Nas combined grim tales of criminality with a breathless “lyrically lyrical” flow that allowed him to legitimately stake a claim as Rakim’s heir apparent (it’s not by mistake that years later he would record U.B.R.). Now, it’s no secret that Nas wasn’t intimately involved in the criminal world, but rather “witnessed it from [his] folks’ pad.” Nevertheless, on Illmatic he displayed an almost preternatural ability to spin storytelling raps of stick ups, drug deals gone wrong, and jail bids that--to a complete outsider like me, at least--had a veneer of authenticity (whatever that means). This was his Nasty Nas persona, before he tried to emulate the image that mid-90s Bad Boy was projecting with his “Nas Escobar” alter ego, and way before his redemption on Stillmatic, legendary beef with Jay-Z, explicit political commentary, marriage to and divorce from Kelis, and transition to mature old man rapper/disgraced abuser/Bitcoin billionaire (maybe?). (You can hear Nas’s own perspective on the early days here). 
Once upon a time, Nas was my favorite rapper, and Illmatic was my favorite album, from any musical genre. Full disclosure, I didn't give it a serious listen until 1998--I was a little too young when it was released for it to have been on my radar--but I can still spit “NY State of Mind” from memory, and still get amped whenever I hear the opening bars of “Halftime.” Nas’s career might be one of the most disappointing in terms of wasted talent (there’s a strong argument to be made for 50, too). Once he moved on from Large Professor, Pete Rock, and DJ Premier, he demonstrated his inability to pick good beats, and has made some truly garbage songs. But he’ll always have Illmatic. Without further ado, here’s a track-by-track breakdown:
The Genesis (link above): A skit about Nas and his crew counting (ill-gotten?) stacks over a sample from Wild Style mixed his a sample of his own voice. 90s rap iconicity with the requisite Hennessy and Phillies references. “Representin’ in Illmatic.” It’s an intro that paints an imagined picture of Queensbridge life, and roots the album in “the culture.”
NY State of Mind: If you only ever listen to one track from this album, or even one Nas track, please make it this one. Nas shows off his full range of abilities here: deft storytelling, a relentless flow that rides the beat perfectly, and clever wordplay (e.g., “It was full of children, probably couldn’t see as high as I be”). The DJ Premier beat is flawless, with excellent and obscure sample selection. Nas announces his arrival (“I’m taking rappers to a new plateau”), and sneaks in some commentary on inequality and structural violence in Queens (“Each block is like a maze/ full of black rats trapped, plus the Island is packed”; “Cops can just arrest me, blamin’ us/ we held like hostages”). I only wish I had listened to his advice when he said, “Never put me in your box if your shit eats tapes.”
Life’s a Bitch: There may never have been a better hook in all of hip-hop, at once bleak and oddly resigned. This track also has the only feature on the whole album (well, two features if you want to call Nas’s father, the jazz artist Olu Dara, playing trumpet on the outro), from AZ, a Brooklyn rapper and member of Nas’s short-lived clique, The Firm, who never achieved mainstream success. As Nas himself put it, “My first album had no famous guest appearances/ The outcome: I’m crowned the best lyricist.” I love how wistful this track sounds compared to today’s beats.
The World is Yours: The title is, of course, an explicit nod to Scarface, the go-to media reference for 90s rappers and a prerequisite for the sort of aspirational voicing that Nas is doing here. It’s a fairly conventional track about the dreams of a small time hustler that belies its strange juxtapositions (“I sip the Dom P, watching Gandhi ‘til I’m charged”). There are also some classic lines that would be sampled subsequently, including one that led Jay-Z to infamously proclaim later, “So, yeah, I sampled your voice/ You was using it wrong.” Interesting tidbit: Toward the middle, Nas says, “Thinking of a word best describing my life to name my daughter.” His daughter, Destiny, was born almost two months after Illmatic dropped.
Halftime: The first single, released six months earlier. When I think of rolling, unrelenting, boom bap beats, this is the first track that springs to mind. I challenge anyone to listen to this and not bob their head. Halftime also contains what is arguably the most quietly brutal boast in the annals of rap: “‘Cause I’m as ill as a convict who kills for phone time.” Additionally, there’s that signature Nas rhyme structure that would be so influential on rappers who came after him (you can even hear a little Eminem in there): “And in the darkness I’m heartless, like when the NARCs hit/ Word to Marcus Garvey, I hardly sparked it.”
Memory Lane (Sittin’ in the Park): If Life’s a Bitch is about the present, and The World is Yours the future, then this is Nas’s embrace of the past... at the ripe old age of 20. This is a love letter to Queens: the chorus, with DJ Premier on the cuts, samples two Queens/Queens-adjacent rappers--Biz Markie and Craig G--and the second verse spins yarns about organized crime figures Fat Cat, the Supreme Team, and Harlem’s Alpo... all of whom would be featured prominently in Queens’ own 50 Cent’s ode to his neighborhood, Ghetto Qu’ran.
One Love: Another example of Nas’s creativity, One Love takes the form of a series of letters from Nas to a couple of friends who are locked up. He relates news from the outside, expresses frustrations with injustice writ large, and reflects on how to persevere through incarceration. And all of it over a downright playful beat from Q-Tip (the quality of the production on this album, I swear...).
One Time 4 Your Mind: Okay, so basically every song on this album is designed to smoke weed to, but in my opinion this is the most “stonerific” of the bunch. The beat is a slow, deep-fried haze that complements Nas’s braggadocio. Nothing spectacular here, but I do love the line, “Y’all ****** was born, I shot my way out my mom dukes,” another sample that would show up in latter day Nas.
Represent: If there’s a weak link on Illmatic, this might be it. Others may disagree, but I’ve never been particularly drawn to this track. It’s another Queens-centric rap, with Nas warning anyone who would try to test the borough. That being said, it does contain one of Nas’s funnier lines--“The kind of ***** who be pissing in your elevator”--and another that would also become fodder for Jay-Z’s disses. 
It Ain’t Hard to Tell: Ending on a strong note, here. I absolutely love this beat, another great Large Professor contribution. There are so many elements going on that you might miss the MJ sample if you’re not paying attention. And a bunch of these lines have been sampled to death, too. Despite his repeated assertions of “depth,” there’s not much of substance to this song, just your run of the mill Nas boasts about his prowess as a rapper. Of course, “run of the mill” for Nas is equivalent to the best that other rappers can offer, so... As he puts it, “Nas’s rhymes should be locked in a cell, it ain’t hard to tell.”
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