To celebrate the 30th anniversary of Nas’ iconic debut album, Illmatic, the hip-hop legend has partnered with London-based menswear designer Umbro and Nicholas Daley to create a limited-edition soccer jersey.
The jersey’s design was made to reflect Nas’ New York City roots and the global impact Illmatic has had on music, as cited by Hybebeast. Aesthetically, the jersey boasts a relaxed silhouette that blends design elements from sports, music, and fashion while celebrating Nas’ iconography through his logo, the signature Illmatic font, and the No. 94, paying homage to the year the album was released.
The limited-edition release seeks to highlight Umbro and Daley’s style and aesthetic and their approach to heritage-inspired fashion.
“Curating this exclusive Nas 30th anniversary Illmatic style in collaboration with Umbro has been a true honor for one of hip-hop’s legendary icons. Illmatic is one of my favorite albums of all time, and the impact it has had both musically and culturally is so evident today,” Daley said.
“The collaboration is a celebration of hip-hop and the legacy of Illmatic whilst incorporating the heritage of Umbro in a collection which I wanted to feel both classic and forward-looking.”
Columbia Records released Illmatic on April 19, 1994. It was recorded between 1992 and 1993 at several studios across New York City. DJ Premier, Large Professor, Pete Rock, Q-Tip, L.E.S., and Nas himself oversaw the album’s production. A cornerstone of hardcore hip-hop, Illmatic is revered for Nas’ complex, unmatched lyricism and vivid inner-city narratives drawn from the rapper’s experiences growing up in the Queensbridge Houses in Queens, New York.
“It’s only nine songs. I think it’s a perfect record,” Nas told Fuse in 2012. “I couldn’t say that before, but there’s so many different dynamics to it. The album cover started a whole thing where, since then, there’s been tons of artists who put their child picture, close-ups of their child picture from here up.”
“There’s just nine songs on it, and it’s straight to the point, the music on it. I wouldn’t change nothing,” he said.
In 2015, Billboard named Illmatic “the best hip-hop album ever.” In 2020, Rolling Stone ranked it at No. 44 on its list of the 500 Greatest Albums of All Time. The following year, it was selected by the Library of Congress for preservation in the National Recording Registry for being “culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant.”
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