Customer Reviews

From Illmatic to Stillmatic: This Is Remix

5 star:		(10)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(4)
1 star:		(5)

 

 

Title: From Illmatic To Stillmatic: This Is The Remix
Artist: Nas
Genre: Rap/Hip Hop
Release Date: July 2, 2002
Label: Ill Will/Columbia Records
Length: 24:56
Number of Tracks: 6
Production List: Nas, Tha Arsenal, The LG Experience, Large Professor, Track Masters & Ty Fyffe

Track Listing + Rating out of 10:

1. Life's a B**** (ft. AZ) - 9
2. One Love - 8.5
3. It Ain't Hard To Tell - 10
4. Street Dreams (ft. R. Kelly) - 10
5. Affirmative Action (ft. Foxy Brown & AZ) - 10
6. One Mic - 9.5

Pros: After over 8 years of Nas' career, he finally released a great remix album. He even updated his older songs. He used lesser known producers take over most of the production on the EP. All The tracks are dope. The album is censored for people who don't like explicit material.

Cons: This album is way to short, it should contain a few remixes from the albums "I Am" and "Nastradamus" and there is no explicit version for people who like uncensored material.

Overall: Excellent EP!

Duh!

Most EPs are 5-8 tracks long, so I don't understand why people are saying this CD is too short. The remixes on here are pretty decent, they're much better than the crap remixes on the Illmatic 10th Anniversary album. The "Life's a B****" arsenal remix is on-point and the "Affirmative Action" remix is nicely done as well. Hardcore Nas fans won't be dissappointed, and should be willing to dish out 9 bucks for these decent remixes of classic Nas joints.

This remix album was released at the busiest point of Nas's career, where he had been releasing so much relevant and mainstream music that a remix album was almost inevitable, especially during 2002, when almost every big rapper was putting out one of these. The remixes here are new takes on some of his most classic songs, and most of them don't really improve on them any. The only people considering buying this probably know the originals anyway, so they wouldn't buy it to hear Nas's lyrical power, and they would most likely be disappointed. Another thing that will deter many listeners is that the tracks are all edited, and the censorship is done poorly. "From Illmatic to Stillmatic: The Remixes" does well for what it is, but don't be expecting anything too much.

The only remix here that really significantly improves over the original is the "Life's a B**ch" Arsenal mix on this EP. Nas and AZ's verses are left unchanged, and instead of the toned down, slow beat on the original, there is a faster, saxophone laced beat. The "One Love" mix has a more defined bassline and vocals during the chorus, it's actually nice to hear. "It Ain't Hard to Tell" sounds very different than the original and is not worth listening to because it's not even close to as good. The "Street Dreams" remix is a little better than the original, but I didn't like the original that much anyway, and it still reflects that awkward period of Nas's career. The "Affirmative Action" remix is very unimpressive, replacing the original beat with a very tired and played-out old school piano line that we've all heard before. The "One Mic" remix isn't good either because except for the slightly sped-up drum pattern, it's virtually indistinguishable from the original.

The bottom line is that if you're a die hard Nas fan, you might find value to having these remixes in your collection, but otherwise I would not recommend it. That said, Nas is maybe the greatest hip hop lyricist ever and any music that is graced with his verses is worth listening to at least once. Newer fans should buy any one of his classic LPs before this.

this CD is TRASH. seriously, how can them ruin so many classics? the overediting is so distracting, and so many excellent beats have been replaced with garbage. "Street Dreams" has a beautiful beat, but so much is lost on this remix album.

buy "Illmatic" or "Lost Tapes" instead.

When this album first caught my eye the first thing I thought was oh no, et tu Nasir. I doubted any of it would be good, just another remix cd where everything is the same except minor adjustments to the beat. But hey, I decided to give it a shot. It did not disappoint me. The cd is straight fire except for the so-called One mic remix that I swear is exactly like the original. I wasn't too thrilled about R. Kelly being on the street dreams remix but I'd have to say it's the second best song falling just short to the life's a bi*** arsenal mix.

So if you're thinking that this is a garbage attempt to cash in on the public buzz as I had previously thought--YOU ARE DEAD WRONG!!!!!!!
This is a great cd and you need it in your collection.

I don't care what everybody says but THIS is thight ...! These are some CLASSIC Nas lyrics like "Life's a B*tch", "It ain't hard to tell"... (actually all the songs on this album are classics but with other beats! And I got to admitt... they are SUPERB, really! Everybody will love this album! There are 2 negative things that I got to say though, WHY are there only 6 songs on it!? If it would contain at least 15 tracks it would be perfect! And second, I don't like the censoring much, way too hypocryt! Anyway, it's thight and everybody should have it so BUY IT!

Great cd worth haveing if you are a real nasty nas fan

these remixes dont even compare to the original. if you haven't heard the songs from the og version of illmatic yet then you better wake up, 'cuz illmatic is still one of the best hiphop albums to date.

This is not terrible they are in fact good remixes the it aint hard to tell remix and the One Love remix were good the best song is the Street Dreams Remix that is better because it has R.Kelly during his prime on it.This is a good remix EP

These are remixes? The only difference between the original songs and the remixes is the beat. The beat is a little different. The lyrics and flow is all the same. I still got to give this album props, though. Most of the songs are from the Illmatic album, like "One Love remix" and "It Ain't Hard To Tell remix." This album has tight songs. It even has newer songs, like "One Mic remix." The bad thing about this album is that that they don't have an explicit version. They only have a clean version. Another dissapointment was that it only has six songs. Overall, this album is pretty good, but not really worth your money. 3.5.