I got loads of magazines from back in the day...from time to time i'm gonna dig them up and share some Gems. This is from '02 where Nas did a thing with Source talking about Illmatic. Dope Read 

The Genesis
In '91 I was on the Main Source album, the "Live at the BBQ" track. And since my album wasn't coming out for a while, I just wanted to remind people where they probably first heard me at. We took something from the Wild Style movie, a conversation between Zoro, the graffiti writer, and his brother coming home from the Army. And it was really asking the question, "What are you gonna do with your life?" The track came in, and me and Jungle and AZ was talking about mansions and coupes and cars and really opening that type of flavor up for the new decade of rhymes. That was what the young brothers wanted - the American Dream. We were just talking about that in the beginning, you know, Genesis. And I knew that somebody was gonna listen.

N.Y. State Of Mind
I think that's my favorite cut. That one was real important because the whole reason for me to do an album was not to do it for myself. It was really to paint a picture about my life, things I seen and been through. It was around the time when Giuliani first got into office and things were changing. There was a lot going on. It was just my understanding, my wisdom at a young age. It was sort of profound to a lot of older people, but it was really just the normal mind state of all the kids my age in New York. I was about 17 when I wrote that. I had a couple of notebooks that I had kept, and I went back into them for Illmatic.

Read the rest inside....

Life's A B*tch (feat. AZ)
That was supposed to be a "Juicy" track. Not Biggie's track, but we just wanted to loop the [original] song. I'm glad we didn't 'cause Biggie destroyed that; he killed that track. LES forgot that record but he brought the Gap Band, "Yearning For Your Love". He played that and it was a done deal. AZ had a bunch of rhymes, he was kinda hyped up. I told him to be more laid back, and he hit me with that rhyme, and I was like, "Damn, you gotta lay that down". That was my anthem for so much, I told my pops to to think about when we were kids and just play whatever comes to mind, and he just played the trumpet at the end.

The World Is Yours
We were coming off the street, listening to rappers like Scarface, like Slick Rick. It was hip hop but it was an important message. I made a lot of references throughout my album, references to Pappy Mason, references about real street gangsters. And then with the next album, I went into other gangsters. So a lot of people bugged out when they heard the Escobar thing. They never caught on to part one. They never caught on to my first album, so I don't even answer people when they say things about that. I think a lot of critics didn't understand the way rap was going. Pete Rock did that [track]. At the time, Pete was Dre. He was just so talented, and Large Professor wanted me to work with him. But I was happy to have him on my album. He is still one of the greatest.

Halftime
"Halftime" was that hard, bassy shit that Large Professor used to do all the time. That shit right there was my part two to "Live at the BBQ". 'Cause with "Live..." that was my plan to come in and stop everybody. It was my way of saying, "Halftime, let's cut for a minute. Let's get shit right. Let's change the game". Basically, let's change everything.

Memory Lane (Sittin' In Da Park)
Premier made the track and I just didn't want it to be a hard-core record. I wanted to vibe, and the music gave me a good feeling of how it used to be. In the rhymes, I wanted to take people on a journey, in hoped that I sparked up memories. It had the Craig G, the Biz Markie shit mixed up in there. It was some classic Premier shit.

One Love
That was a letter to a few friends about how life was since they had gone in [jail]. That last verse was about taking you where the youth is headed. My man Pop was on that record, in the beginning of it, talking like he was in jail. He was supposed to be on my album, and he wound up doing seven [years]. He felt real close to that record because he was talking as if he was in jail. And the next thing you know he was there. Tip was dope. He's so fuckin' creative. His rhythm is what I was looking for. His soul is deep. He played the track over the phone, and we just clicked. I was a big-time Tribe fan. They helped me be proud of who I was. Q-Tip helped me understand culture. It was a great deal for me to work with him.

One Time 4 Your Mind
I was just freestylin', just having fun with the music. Large Professor did that. He presented joints to me that he knew I would like.

Represent
That was Premier once again. That had a couple of beat changes. I'm real picky with the beats, and Premier had no problem with that. He was just happy to see me blow. He's one of those guys that's just happy to see people come up. And "Represent" was the shit everybody was saying back then. And that's when we first started saying "dunn". That was just the talk throughout Queensbridge. That record really spoke about who I was.

It Ain't Hard To Tell
Hard-core rap. Originally, it had harder lyrics. It used to have a harder beat to it, but then Large Professor started working with the "Human Nature" joint. We was mad at Teddy Riley at first, because we heard the SWV song with the same sample. But it was just great minds thinking alike. That was my single, you know. I just let the world know I was coming. It was a feel-good record. That was actually my demo. Akinyele used to call me up like "Let's go shop our shit at different labels". Also, Kool G Rap took me out to shop my sh*t, took me to Def Jam. Russell turned me down, Cold Chillin' turned me down, Elektra, Clark Kent turned me down. They wanted groups like the Fu-Schnickens, like "Nas, you cool, but we already got a Kool G Rap". Columbia records, that's who I really wanted to be with. It went through Serch's label...He says he got 20 percent of my publishing, so he got paid when I got paid...but I didn't sell my publishing like a lot of artists be doing.