400) Illmatic

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A stone-cold East Coast hip-hop classic. Other rappers were harder and better-armed, but nobody captured the creeping menace of life on the streets like this twenty-year-old from New York's Queensbridge projects. Deploying lines such as "I never sleep, 'cause sleep is the cousin of death," Nas displayed more pure poetic style than anyone since Rakim -- but unlike Eighties rappers, Nas was responding to a city where "crews without guns are goners."

Total album sales: 1 million

Peak chart position: 12

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