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.”
Last week saw the appearance of another odious screed full of lies from the People’s Republic of China (PRC) Ambassador to Australia, Xiao Qian (肖千), in the Financial Review, a major Australian paper. Xiao’s piece was presented without challenge or caveat. His “Seven truths on why Taiwan always will be China’s” presented a “greatest hits” of the litany of PRC falsehoods. This includes: Taiwan’s indigenous peoples were descended from the people of China 30,000 years ago; a “Chinese” imperial government administrated Taiwan in the 14th century; Koxinga, also known as Cheng Cheng-kung (鄭成功), “recovered” Taiwan for China; the Qing owned
In Taiwan’s politics the party chair is an extremely influential position. Typically this person is the presumed presidential candidate or serving president. In the last presidential election, two of the three candidates were also leaders of their party. Only one party chair race had been planned for this year, but with the Jan. 1 resignation by the currently indicted Ko Wen-je (柯文哲) of the Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) two parties are now in play. If a challenger to acting Chairman Huang Kuo-chang (黃國昌) appears we will examine that race in more depth. Currently their election is set for Feb. 15. EXTREMELY
Jan. 20 to Jan. 26 Taipei was in a jubilant, patriotic mood on the morning of Jan. 25, 1954. Flags hung outside shops and residences, people chanted anti-communist slogans and rousing music blared from loudspeakers. The occasion was the arrival of about 14,000 Chinese prisoners from the Korean War, who had elected to head to Taiwan instead of being repatriated to China. The majority landed in Keelung over three days and were paraded through the capital to great fanfare. Air Force planes dropped colorful flyers, one of which read, “You’re back, you’re finally back. You finally overcame the evil communist bandits and
They increasingly own everything from access to space to how we get news on Earth and now outgoing President Joe Biden warns America’s new breed of Donald Trump-allied oligarchs could gobble up US democracy itself. Biden used his farewell speech to the nation to deliver a shockingly dark message: that a nation which has always revered its entrepreneurs may now be at their mercy. “An oligarchy is taking shape in America of extreme wealth, power and influence that literally threatens our entire democracy, our basic rights and freedoms,” Biden said. He named no names, but his targets were clear: men like Elon Musk
RSS