Photo by Julia Schur

With an HBO bio series in the works, Illmatic XX coming tomorrow, and Time Is Illmatic set to premier in two days, you could say Nas is aging well. In this striking snippet, we hear a gang of rave reviews and quotes about the legendary album, but nothing is as riveting as the stretch of Nas’ monologue in the trailer’s closing. We hear Nas, with his voice raspier and more strained than we’ve ever heard it, recounting how, when he was crafting Illmatic , he really was trying to make the perfect album, that he really was trying to change music. It’s almost difficult to believe, but it’s much more fascinating to believe in.

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