Nas: "Illmatic" Trivia Quiz

Answer: Main Source - "Live at the Barbeque"

You hear a train rolling along and dialogue from the 1983 hip-hop movie, "Wild Style," as well. Amidst the noise from the train and the dialogue, a song can be heard faintly playing in the background. It's Main Source's song "Live at the Barbeque," which featured Akinyele, Fatal, Large Professor, and Nas, also. You hear Nas's verse with the lyrics,

"Street's disciple, my raps are trifle
I shoot slugs from my brain just like a rifle
Stampede the stage, I leave the microphone split
Play Mr. Tuffy while I'm on some Pretty Tone
Verbal assassin, my architect pleases
When I was twelve..."

Answer: AZ

AZ has collaborated with Nas on almost all of Nas's albums. They were both members of the mega-group, The Firm, with Foxy Brown and Nature. Although AZ never became as renowned as Nas, he has always been known to drop spectacular verses when featured by Nas. AZ raps the first verse to the third song on the album, the L.E.S. produced "Life's A..." He raps the following:

"Visualizin the realism of life and actuality
Forget who's the baddest a person's status depends on salary
And my mentality is, money orientated
I'm destined to live the dream for all my peeps who never made it..."

Answer: Halftime

Back when Nas still called himself "Nasty Nas", he hooked up with producer Large Professor and released a track called "Halftime" for the "Zebrahead" soundtrack in 1992. The movie stars Michael Rapaport in an early role that deals with interracial issues. Nas later decided to put the track on his debut album two years later. A low budget music video was shot for the song.

Answer: "...'cause sleep is the cousin of death..."

"...Inside information keeps large brothers erasin and they wives basin
It drops deep as it does in my breath
I never sleep, cause sleep is the cousin of death
Beyond the walls of intelligence, life is defined
I think of crime when I'm in a New York state of mind."

These lyrics fininsh up the first verse of "N.Y. State of Mind", and are later repeated at the end of the second verse, as well. The track is produced by DJ Premier.

Answer: Memory Lane (Sittin' in da Park)

Produced by DJ Premier, "Memory Lane" is the sixth track on the album. Those specific lyrics can be found right in the middle of the second verse.

Answer: Human Nature

"Human Nature" is the seventh track on one of the greatest selling albums of all time, "Thriller," by Michael Jackson. The melody of "Human Nature" and singing ad-libs are used as samples in Nas's song, "It Ain't Hard To Tell." Produced by Large Professor, "It Ain't Hard To Tell" was a single off the album and a video was made for the song, as well.

Answer: The World Is Yours

The quote, "The World Is Yours," is very famous for being in numerous parts in the 1983 movie, "Scarface," starring Al Pacino and Michelle Pfeifer. The movie told the story of a Cuban, Tony Montana, and his rise and fall in the drug business. Nas uses themes from the movie to go along with the title of his song.

It features the blimp with the quote, "The World Is Yours," rolling along and Nas in a humongous hot tub just as Scarface was in the movie. The video was shot in black and white. "Street Dreams" is not even on the album and "One Time 4 Your Mind" never had a video made for the song. "It Ain't Hard To Tell" has a totally different video.

Answer: The World Is Yours

Again, the answer is "The World Is Yours," which was Pete Rock's lone production note of the album. The other tracks were produced by DJ Premier from Gang Starr, who, along with Large Professor, produced three songs on the album.

Answer: Jerome's niece

A Tribe Called Quest rapper/producer, Q-Tip, made his lone production appearance on this song. He also rapped the hook, "one love."

"...I was like yeah, shorty don't care, she a snake too
messin' with the brothers from that fake crew that hate you
but yo, guess who got shot in the dome-piece?
jeromes niece, on her way home from jones beach..."

those lyrics can be found in the middle of the first verse.

Answer: less than Guess

Another DJ Premier track, "Represent" is the ninth song on this ten track epic album. At that time, in the early 90's, if you wore "Guess" clothing, people knew you had money. By saying he never wore less than "Guess," Nas was letting you know he was well off from rapping.