Nas: Time Is Illmatic
Directed by: One9
Written by: Erik Parker
Documentary - 74 min Reviewed by Charlie Juhl on 8 Oct 2014
Written by: Erik Parker
Documentary - 74 min Reviewed by Charlie Juhl on 8 Oct 2014
I grew up about as far away as you can get from the Queensbridge Projects where Nasir “Nas” Jones came of age. While I cannot connect with the lifestyle and events portrayed in the film on a personal level, even though I grew up in the years chronicled on screen, I can and do appreciate how Nas’s surroundings and social conditions influenced his rhymes. I remember when Nas’s first album, Illmatic, was released in the spring of 1994. “Life’s a Bitch” is on my iPod 20 years later because I still love that song. Nas may not be the most famous rapper out there anymore and certainly lacks the enormous ego and swagger of today’s top hip-hop artists, but for a time in the mid-1990s, Nas was the most respected rapper in the music world.
There is a black and white picture taken in 1994 which Nas’s brother, Jabari “Jungle” Jones, dissects in front of the camera. There are probably 20 or so African-American teenagers in it, all from Queensbridge. He lists off which boys have since been murdered and who is currently locked up and for how long. The list goes on and on. Right in the middle of the picture are two young boys maybe eight or nine. One of them is in for 15 years and the other for life. This is a tough yet visceral moment, certainly the hardest hitting of the entire film. Nas was 19 at the time and on the right side of the picture. He says if it was not for hip-hop, he would have ended up in the exact same place as the majority of the kids around him, dead or in prison.
There is a black and white picture taken in 1994 which Nas’s brother, Jabari “Jungle” Jones, dissects in front of the camera. There are probably 20 or so African-American teenagers in it, all from Queensbridge. He lists off which boys have since been murdered and who is currently locked up and for how long. The list goes on and on. Right in the middle of the picture are two young boys maybe eight or nine. One of them is in for 15 years and the other for life. This is a tough yet visceral moment, certainly the hardest hitting of the entire film. Nas was 19 at the time and on the right side of the picture. He says if it was not for hip-hop, he would have ended up in the exact same place as the majority of the kids around him, dead or in prison.
Nas’s rhymes are so far reaching and impactful because he raps what he sees. Growing up in the projects, he witnessed atrocious violence, gutting poverty, and the crack epidemic. However, he thrived with neighborhood pride. Queensbridge might be rough and tumble, but it is his home and he will defend it as best he can, through beats and rhymes. The battle raps between the Queens artists represented by MC Shan and Marley Marl and the South Bronx featuring KRS-One are amusing as each group proclaims the other neighborhood is over or fake. This foreshadows Nas’s immense and very public feud to come with Jay-Z, an episode the film does not cover since Jay-Z was not around yet for the rise of and release of Illmatic. It also alludes to the violent East versus West coast drama of the mid-1990s culminating in the murders of 2Pac and Brooklyn’s Notorious B.I.G.
Most of the stories are told through Nas, Jungle, and their father, Olu Dara. Born in Deep South Mississippi, Olu Dara points out that even in the midst of cross burnings and the Ku Klux Klan, he still had a community support structure. There were good teachers and schools who cared about the children. Queens had no neighborhood support like that. He agreed his boys should drop out of school and practice whatever craft they were passionate about. This decision could have easily backfired, but it set Nas on his course.
One episode in the film which does backfire though is the story of Nas’s best friend, Willy Graham aka Ill Will. Will is murdered right outside their building on the walkway in front of dozens of people and then the film immediately jumps to Nas’s early demos and how he used the pain of Will’s death to drive him on. Back up a minute. What happened in the aftermath of Will’s death? We are left hanging. Did the shooter get away, did he go to prison? One short sentence of closure would suffice.
Director One9 uses a mountain of photographs and Super8 film to chronicle Nas’s early years and Queensbridge from the mid-‘80s through the early ‘90s. They support the backstories of Illmatic’s songs and why particular rhymes came together as they did. Producers and artists including Q-Tip and Large Professor analyze their particular tracks on the album and even bigger stars including Alicia Keys and Busta Rhymes briefly talk about Illmatic’s impact on their lives and thoughts about what hip-hop could do.
Nas: Time Is Illmatic is not for everyone; I think you need an appreciation of ‘90s hip-hop going in and at least a shallow awareness of who Nas is and the profound impact he had on music. The examination of Queensbridge and life growing up in the projects in the middle of the drug explosion and surrounding violence will interest the social and political scientists in the crowd but this documentary is about one man. The songs are in the background and there are short cuts to performances but Time Is Illmatic is about a specific time in a specific neighborhood. “Life’s a Bitch” are apt words to describe Queensbridge, but for some folks out there, it is home.
Comment Box is loading comments...
