“The Genesis” by Nas

"The Genesis" belongs to Illmatic, the debut album Nas put out through Columbia on April 19, 1994, and its credits pair the Queensbridge rapper, who wrote the words, with Fab 5 Freddy, who shares the writing credit. Nas had landed his deal with a hand from MC Serch and cut the album over 1992 and 1993 at four New York City rooms, Chung King, D&D, Battery and Unique, with DJ Premier, Large Professor, Pete Rock, Q-Tip, L.E.S. and Nas himself sharing production.

Illmatic is hardcore hip-hop, dense with multisyllabic internal rhymes and street stories from Nas's own youth in the Queensbridge Houses, and he'd started writing for it at 16. Sales were slow out of the gate, but critics raved, and it has long since settled in as one of the most revered hip-hop albums ever made.

Written with AI assistance from RockLists chart data, MusicBrainz.