Sirens are in full blast! She's a bootleg mate!
100% sure this is from our "Oh you nasty lil' bootleg" collection which had their own "special place" in the library, well away from the legit releases
I am offering this bootleg to those who collect such things (and there are many who like to collect these "non-conformist" releases)
NAS - Illmatic (10 Year Anniversary Illamatic Platinum Series)
Sony Urban Music - Columbia
Cat# 515482.2 NO 804
CD matrix codes: NAS ILLMATIC NO 804 (There are no other markings in the matrix)
2004 (ish)
Asian (Somewhere!) Release
CD case, front cover and rear inlay are all in very good condition with no personal writing.
CD media is in good (minus) condition, visually inspected under a bright White halogen light source and I can see quite a few scuff marks on the media - none look to be serious but just looking at any CD media is not a great way to judge the condition so I have played the ENTIRE release, every track completely, and there are NO issues with playback at all.
Before I detail the track listing ... let's talk about this 'creation' by some backyard operator in Asia.
The packaging ...
Standard jewel case with a front 4 page cover and rear inlay.
The CD face, and the paperwork are all monochromatic printed i.e no colour
Someone has gone to quite a bit of trouble changing the text on the rear inlay in particular. You see this was officially released as a two CD disc set, with the rear inlay detailing the tracks separately on each CD, as you would expect. The text on THIS RELEASE has the tracks all listed but in a continuous numerical order and no mention of Disc 1 or Disc 2. The only hint that this was originally a two disc set is that the dastardly pirates left the Executive Producer credits for each disc still amongst the text.
The usual credits, owners of copyright etc are all listed but with a mention of "Distribution by Sony Music Asia"
Nowhere on the front, rear inlay or the CD face is there any mention of the country of manufacture.
Being just a 4 page front section, a lot of the original artwork is missing compared to the original official release PLUS on the inside of this front cover has been added NO. 804 just above the bottom line of text, this text is part of the original printing and NOT hand written.
The media ...
The screen print should have been in colour ... this rogue CD is monochromatic printed (the colours showing in the photograph are reflected sunlight, not from the CD face colouring)
The CD matrix coding is simple ... NAS ILLAMATIC NO 804 (nothing else)
There is NO IFPI code at all (not suprisingly)
So here we have a bootleg that someone went to quite a bit of trouble to rip off Nasir, all of the musicians involved, production team and of course the label(s) ... not only did they recreate the CD content (2x CD's down to 1) but also altered the graphic art on the front booklet and rear inlay.
The track listing is identical to the official releases but of course on just one CD i.e no track re-ordering has been done
TRACKS: The Genesis, N.Y. State Of Mind, Life's A B****, The World Is Yours, Halftime, Memory Lane, One Love, One Time 4 Your Mind, Represent, It Ain't Hard To Tell, Lifes A B**** (remix), The World Is Yours (remix), One Love (remix), It Ain't Hard To Tell (remix), On The Real, Star Wars
