Twenty-one years ago, Nas released Illmatic — and the hip-hop world came to a standstill. Dubbed an instant classic by music critics and fans alike, Nas’ debut album interwove poetic tales about dilapidated New York City streets with grimy beats by Large Professor, Q-Tip, Pete Rock and DJ Premier.
For One9 (real name Michael Baluyut-Silverman), who will be in Taiwan for the Urban Nomad Film Festival this Saturday for a screening and Q&A about his film, Nas: Time is Illmatic, the rapper’s album was raw and visual.
It was “a lyrical delivery so prolific that I had to keep replaying every track,” One9 said in an email interview with the Taipei Times.
Photo Courtesy of Danny Clinch
He added that it was akin to “seeing images of death and pain” told through hopeful stories. “When you make something so raw and honest that shines a light, you shape lives and inspire a culture.”
10 YEARS IN THE MAKING
On the tenth anniversary of the album’s release in 2004, One9 was contacted by Erik Parker, a music editor at Vibe magazine about making a DVD about Illmatic. They interviewed Nas’ father, jazz musician Olu Dara, as well as the album’s producers, and they cut a trailer. Eventually, Parker and One9 also met with Nas and received the green light from him. After 10 years of hard work and a research and production grant, the film was starting to take shape.
Photo Courtesy of Danny Clinch
One9 said they looked at several ways to create a narrative by using song titles from the album as metaphors for larger social issues.
“All these issues painted a picture of what Nas’ life was like growing up so viewers could feel the intensity of the lyrics that came out of those situations.”
The film was chosen as the Tribeca Film Festival’s opening movie in New York City last year. Although seeing a full house was satisfying, that was nothing for One9 compared to Nas’s own reaction and that of his family’s.
Photo Courtesy of Ari Issler
“The biggest compliment was talking with Nas and he said the movie is equivalent to the album Illmatic as far as feeling and impact,” One9 said.
He added that he spoke to Nas’ father who said it was “the best ghetto film he’d ever seen.”
What: Film screening of ‘Nas: Time is Illmatic’ at Urban Nomad Film Festival
Where: Lux cinema (樂聲影城), 85, Wuchang St Sec 2, Taipei City (台北市武昌街二段85號)
When: Saturday at 6:20pm and Tuesday at 8:05pm, followed by Q&A
Admission: Advance tickets are NT$200 and can be purchased at tickets.books.com.tw. Tickets are available at the door for NT$230
On the net: 2015.urbannomad.tw
Aug 15 to Aug 21 Within hours, a minor traffic dispute between two taxi drivers had escalated into a full-out street brawl involving hundreds of combatants. Armed with metal bats, car locks and even tear gas, the midnight battle on Aug. 17, 1995 between Chuan Ming (全民) and Beiqu (北區) taxi drivers associations lasted for over four hours at the roundabout on Tingzhou Road (汀州路) in Taipei. Scattered clashes also broke out in other areas of the capital, as well as in what is today’s New Taipei City. The crowd dispersed around 4:30am, but peace lasted only a few hours. Around 7am, about
It’s baking hot in New York, which can only mean one thing for the city’s small mammal population: it’s splooting season. This week, with temperatures reaching 35 degrees Celsius, the city’s parks department urged residents not to worry about the health of squirrels seen sprawling on the ground, legs extended behind them like a person whose arms gave out halfway through a yoga class. “On hot days, squirrels keep cool by splooting (stretching out) on cool surfaces to reduce body heat,” the department tweeted. Perhaps even more remarkable than the phenomenon itself was the word the government agency used. Splooting? Is that
When Zuo tested positive for COVID-19 while working as a cleaner in one of Shanghai’s largest quarantine centers, she hoped it wouldn’t be long before she could pick up the mop and start earning again. But four months on, she is still fighting to get her job back — one of scores of recovering COVID patients facing what labor rights activists and health experts say is a widespread form of discrimination in zero-COVID China. Using snap lockdowns and mass testing, China is the last major economy still pursuing the goal of stamping out the virus completely. Those who test positive, as well
Demand for Taiwanese migrant workers in Singapore is booming: there are more than a thousand jobs on many Web sites, with advertisements for cabin crew, executive assistants, engineers, credit analysts, even auto mechanics, all at far more than they could earn in Taiwan. Most of us think of Taiwan as place that absorbs migrant workers, but we are also a place that is increasingly sending them out. This has important ramifications for the future of Taiwan. Last week, the government issued another one of its periodic warnings that certain overseas employers are actually enslaving Taiwanese into conducting Internet and phone scams,
RSS