Nas: Time Is Illmatic

...applies enough emotion and visual flourishes to steer clear of hacky Behind The Music territory, and it’s an incredibly smart choice to subtitle the lyrics during the performance scenes...

...Life's a bitch and then you die. Here's 74 minutes well spent.

A chronicle of the effects of poverty and poor housing on a generation of New York’s black kids, Illmatic was a scouring exposé.

...a surprisingly incisive diagram of the circumstances that led to a young MC from Queensbridge named Nasir Nas Jones becoming the poet laureate of East Coast hip-hop.

...conjures a vivid picture of the forces that shaped...Jones’ development...and succeeds in doing so with such a wide-ranging approach that allows the story to appeal beyond just the hip hop heads.