A few of these same producers would set the tone for New York hip-hop for the rest of the decade, flipping obscure loops on the SP-1200 for one chosen lyricist in particular. Records were spinning, conversations were buzzing, and people were perpetually peeking over shoulders to catch a glimpse of what the next man bought.

It was an electrifying atmosphere of camaraderie and competition - countless producers and DJs hunched over eight-foot tables, shuffling through hundreds of dusty crates and cardboard boxes in search of rare vinyls. By the time I’m leaving, it’s 10 o’clock, so now I’m looking at Pete Rock, Q-Tip, Buckwild - all of them in line waiting to get in, watching me with this big box of music and coming back down to see if I can get some more shit!” – Kid Capri ( 2013) What I used to do was get a room the night before, and I’d go downstairs while are walking in at 6 o’clock in the morning, buy 5 to 6 thousand dollars worth of shit, and take it upstairs to my hotel room. His vision ultimately culminated in a creative hub that laid the foundation for an East Coast rap renaissance in the ‘90s.ĭexter Campbell’s legendary Roosevelt Hotel Record Convention was held every Sunday on the bustling corner of East Forty-fifth Street and Madison Avenue in Midtown Manhattan, and as word quickly spread throughout the crate-digging community, it began attracting a bevy of hip-hop luminaries. In 1993, a young entrepreneur named Dexter Campbell made the rounds to different record convention shows in the tri-state area, diligently taking notes for a blueprint of his own. This is a tribute to the legacy of arguably the greatest album in hip-hop history, and almost two-and-a-half decades later, it remains a quintessential benchmark of rap. We explore the cultural context surrounding the release of Illmatic, provide an oral history of the creative process, and break the album down track-by-track.

When a twenty-year-old high school dropout from Queensbridge dropped his debut album in ‘94, the landscape of hip-hop changed forever.

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