In 1994, a 19-year-old Nas released Illmatic, an album that announced the full arrival of the modern age of hip-hop. This period, which began in 1993, came to an end with Wu-Tang Clan’s 1997 LP, Wu-Tang Forever. What connects the modern period with the golden age (1984 to 1993) is that both prioritized black innovation. Black artists still called the shots; after 1997, the white market called the shots. Though Biggie Smalls and 2Pac marked the rise and final domination of what we now call rap, it was Nas who first initiated the break that would send rap to the mainstream and hip-hop to the underground. He did this by abandoning, on his sophomore record It Was Written, the black innovation that defined Illmatic, an album primarily produced by the greatest minds of the modern period: DJ Premier, Q-Tip, Large Professor, and, of course, Pete Rock. Nas’ raps on Illmatic were raw and lyrical, personal and social, experimental and conventional. He had it all. Hip-hop had it all. And now almost all of this culture’s greatness is gone from the mainstream. Nas will now be remembered as the father of a number of rap multi-millionaires and even billionaires. Long live Illmatic. by Charles Mudede