Nas gives a performance of his debut album "Illmatic" played together with an orchestra. In support of the interpreter, there's also DJ Green Lantern to provide scattered scratches. The project is contained in a double vinyl released by his label Mass Appeal for Record Store Day 2018 and features a live recording from March 2014 in which the artist performs his entire first work together with the National Symphony Orchestra in Washington D.C.
The live is opened by "The Genesis" with excellent strings, the intro remains a masterpiece even with the orchestra, flowing into "NY State of Mind". Here Nas commits himself and the cut manages to stand up to the comparison with the studio version, sounding even better. Listening to "Life's a Bitch" without AZ's verse loses a lot of its value, this is one of the tracks that the orchestra doesn't know how to enhance. Worth appreciating is the sax solo originally played by Nas' father, Olu Dara.
"The World is Yours" also works well with the orchestra, but there's too much work for Green Lantern. Things aren't any better for the cult track "Halftime", which suffers most from the massive presence of DJ Green Lantern's scratches. The Rochester DJ doesn't even spare himself in the next choice, "Memory Lane (Sittin' in da Park)", which however sounds better than the previous ones.
"One Love" is the other choice along with "NY State of Mind" which manages to hold its own against the studio version, this is beautiful. “One Time 4 Your Mind” is the least appreciated track from Jones’ iconic debut and even here it sounds a little weak here. "Represent" like "Halftime" suffers a lot from Green Lantern's scratches just before the live performance ends with "It Ain't Hard to Tell": the orchestra recreates this classic, but Nas skips several bars to make the audience sing them.
The orchestral live revisits one of the best albums of all time. It's not a bad idea and has its moments, even if it needs continuous scratches and turntable interpolations by DJ Green Lantern, which is why it could easily be disliked by purists. The union of DJ and orchestra often doesn't work and unfortunately this attempt is no exception, despite still being a solid effort that makes you appreciate the original, its authors and its producers more, another confirmation of the fact that that team was made up of some of the best of the period.
Rating: 7.5/10.
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