Illmatic and the Concept of Legacy

Celebrating the anniversary of an iconic album in the disposable culture

It is the 20th anniversary of Illmatic and there are celebrations and think pieces dedicated to it everywhere, from NahRight to The Wall Street Journal.

This is fascinating because an LP from 1994 that was largely overlooked in 1994 is being celebrated in 2014 as tons of great LPs from 2014 are being overlooked.

We have entered the disposable culture. People get their music for free, watch movies at home, and read everything on their phones while doing something else (usually driving).

So why has Illmatic captured both the attention and the imagination of a generation and a culture that forgets everything ten minutes after it debuts? People want to feel like they’re part of something special and historic, even in retrospect.

Most hip-hop heads, even those that know the history of the genre and can tell you obscure facts and trivia, were late on Illmatic. In 1994, it was all about Wu-Tang and Snoop and Bad Boy. Nas was beloved in the underground on the streets of NYC, but most people outside the…