.for the first time in maybe since 2005; I only have one cd player that works in the house (my car cd player has a cd stuck in it for the past year) and 99% of the time I only use that cd player/cd burner to burn cds.

Anyway I got a ton of cassettes and two boom-boxes that have tape decks that work but the cd player on both are dead, so I listen to cassettes and vinyl most of the time, so I got a 90 min. tape with "Illmatic" on one side and "Word...Life" on the other side; so I saw it in a pile of tapes and pulled this one out to listen to, I use to play this tape a lot back in the late 90's (especially when I had a car with a tape deck in it) but probably 'round 2001 I think was the last time I listened to it, and last time I heard "Illmatic" from beginning to end was when the 10th Anniversary cd was released in 2004.

I still listen to other albums by Nas & O.C. and their singles but their firsts it's been a while, "Illmatic" sounds like it always did, I still want to skip "One Time 4 Your Mind" so bad, "Life's A Bitch" sound so ahead of it's time while back then I hated the beat back then, and still want to hear "World Is Yours Remix" which I added on the end of the album instead of the original, and forgot that I put the remix to "Life's A Bitch" on there too.

Anyway with "Word...Life" that kind of sounded dated with most tracks, the beats still knock which I just zoned out to more than listen to the rhymes, some songs like "Story" or "No Main Topic" I wondered why they picked over the ones I remember hearing from the "O-Zone Originals" EP but I can understand that an after the fact situation; it was better back then; but his second album was a classic and way better than his first but his first was a good introduction to O.C. and you can't take that away from him.