Day 0763 - Illmatic

Nas "Illmatic" (1994)

Son of a jazz musician, Nas started playing trumpet and writing rhymes.  His father Olu Dara actually features on this album playing trumpet.

Nas met producer/rapper the Large Professor and through him recorded some material in studio downtime between other artists' sessions.   None of these recordings, however, were released at the time.   Nas then secured a recording contract with Columbia records and released his first single, a track on the soundtrack to the Oliver Stone-produced film "Zebrahead".   

By the time they came to work on Nas' debut "Illmatic", he had created enough buzz to attract a few producers wanting to work with him.  Producers for Illmatic included Large Professor, Q-Tip and DJ Premier.  The music is a good mix of jazz elements and more stripped down hip hop beats.   

Nas reports on ghetto life, but with grim reality rather than glamourising it.  The album was awarded a rare '5 mics' rating by American hip hop magazine 'The Source', a rating considered so high and so rare that the magazine had to make a point of defending it publicly.

Day 0652 - 90

808 State "90" (1989)

Another album that the book refers to as "Manchester/Madchester" and "Acid House", even though it sounds completely different from the other two on the list that classed under that heading.  I guess it's similar to Nirvana, Pearl Jam and Soundgarden all being labelled as 'grunge' in the 90s, even though they were playing fairly different styles of music (with one or two common factors).

This to me is early electronic/EDM: thumping beats, interesting synth sounds.  There are minimal vocals, and when they are there, they seem more like a looped instrument rather than the central 'feature' of the tracks.   Great album, really interesting stuff.

Day 0511 - Nebraska

Bruce Springsteen "Nebraska"  (1982) - got it

Springsteen originally recorded the demos for this album at home on his 4-track.  He took the demos into the studio to record them with his E-Street Band.  But, once the tracks were down, Bruce and his team decided that the rootsy, stripped-down melancholy of the original demos was the sound that the songs needed and elected to just release Springsteen's demos.  The record company were less certain, but eventually allowed it.

The album remains (justifiably) critically acclaimed.  It is a morose and intimate portrait of struggling small town America.  Bruce moved to more radio-and-stadium-friendly fare for his next album "Born in the USA", but this one certainly adds an extra dimension to his oeuvre.