Here’s some hip-hop trivia for you: Did you know one of the reasons Nas’ classic debut album, Illmatic, only consisted of 10 songs was due to the rush of its release because the album was leaked by Nas himself?
During a recent interview with “Revolt Live,” Nas tells of how he unintentionally leaked his album by making copies for friends:
I heard a lot of stories, but I feel guilty too because I was making tapes for my friends. I didn’t think about it like, ‘My album’s gonna come out,’ but I made a few copies for my boys. Everybody wanted a copy so I just gave them a copy. It was playing in the neighborhood, so I thought it was cool that the neighborhood had the copies first until I heard [that] it was in [Los Angeles], Chicago, and all these different places. I was messed up for a minute. It was dope, too, at the same time because I knew people liked it. It was cool.
The Tribeca Film Festival will debut the Nas documentary Time Is Illmatic on April 16.
