Nas announces Illmatic XX

20 years ago, a young rapper from Queensbridge, New York dropped an album that would change the face of hip-hop, kickstarting a new wave of East Coast 'hardcore' rap music that would eventually bring his fellow Queensbridge rappers Mobb Deep, Capone, Noreaga and AZ to the world's attention, and assure his place in the annals of hip-hop history.

That rapper was Nas, the album was Illmatic – still thought of by many as one of the all-time classics of the genre – and this year, to celebrate its 20th anniversary, he will be dropping a special edition of the classic, under the title Illmatic XX, featuring unheard tracks, remixes and freestyles, as well as a documentary about its making and its continuing influence, entitled Time Is Illmatic.

Nas will also be toruing the US playing the classic album in full, utilising the still-fresh beats constructed for Illmatic by producers including Large Professor, Pete Rock, Q-Tip, DJ Premier and Nas himself. With its multi-syllabic parallel rhymes, straight up boom-bap beats and confessional, dramatic narrative storytelling, Illmatic remains one of the most influential hip-hop albums of all time.

According to the press release for the documentary, Illmatic has "become a hip-hop benchmark that encapsulates the socio-political outlook, enduring spirit, and collective angst of a generation of young black men searching for their voice in America." The film "tracks the musical legacy of the Jones family, handed down to Nas from his jazz musician father, Olu Dara. It also examines the social conditions and environmental influences that contributed to Nas’ worldview," examining how the album was made with "the support of his Queensbridge neighborhood crew, the loyalty of his younger brother Jabari 'Jungle' Fret, and [the] sacrifices of his mother, Ann Jones," showing how Nas "overcame insurmountable odds to create the greatest work of music from hip-hop’s second golden era." The album is released on 15 April, with the documentary to follow later in the year.