What else can you say about an album so perma-welded to its own reputation as an unimpeachable hip-hop classic? It’s like trying to review your own blood. Nasir’s clear-eyed, empathetic, thrillingly technical lyricism peaked here, a bad thing for a debut unless you’re invoking someone who started so impossibly high that a noticeable drop-off still left him top-tier. But that all goes away anyhow when this is in the deck: it’s 1994, windows down on a late spring day, the greatest all-star beatmaker team mid ’90s NYC could offer, and the world is yours — and his.

– Nate Patrin

Heralded as “the second coming” leading up to his debut LP, Illmatic, Queens rapper Nas exceeded those lofty expectations by wrapping vivid street journalism around a virtuosic, nimble flow. Not only did he inspire a sea-change in hip-hop lyricism but the album’s murder’s row of top producers, including Pete Rock, DJ Premier, Large Professor, and Q-Tip, would become an “all-star team” template for future marquee rap releases.

– Oliver Wang