Choice Is Yours Vol. 55: Illmatic vs. Ride the Lightning
Nas – Illmatic (1994)
Vs.
Metallica – Ride the Lightning (1984)
The Game is simple… if only one could exist which would it be? What’s more important… personal relevance, cultural significance, or simply being the better album all other things aside? Choice is yours…
- My Pal the Crook
December 1st, 2009 at 1:40 pm
I’ve never listened to Ride The Lightning but I have listened to Illmatic out of curiosity and it’s not great, Shoot me idc. The Metallica album cover is doper so it wins.
December 1st, 2009 at 1:42 pm
Metallica, Because they make those guitars scream like Jihad!!! lalalalalalalalalalalalalalalalalalalalalalalalalalalalalalalalalalalalalala!!!!
December 1st, 2009 at 1:48 pm
Based on nothing but facial hair, Metallicock get it.
*n
December 1st, 2009 at 2:06 pm
Wait WHAT?! Illmatic is not great?!!! What do you look for in a great rap album? No one has been able to replicate the impact and greatness of this album in 15 years!
Sorry, you have bad taste.
I obviously choose Illmatic, one of the best 1/2 hr albums that I have ever had the pleasure to indulge in my lifetime.
December 1st, 2009 at 2:07 pm
Ride the lightning… for sure.
December 1st, 2009 at 2:07 pm
One forever changed the face of hip-hop and the other changed the face of douchism towards downloading music.
Um yeah, i don’t think i need to say where i stand on this.
December 1st, 2009 at 2:12 pm
Illmatic, no doubt about it. Metallica is barely music, Nas on the other hand, is a legend.
December 1st, 2009 at 2:14 pm
chenyip’s got the idea.
December 1st, 2009 at 2:15 pm
Ride the Lightning is really fucking good. Nick and I just had a discussion about how he thought it wasn’t a pivotal metal (genre snobs can get specific here) album and I disagreed wholeheartedly. I probably heard it for the first time around the same time Illmatic came out and I found it pretty insane even then. I still like that album, but where I’ll listen to a couple tracks off RtL on occasion, Illmatic as an album is just so much better.
Ease, I’m with Dennis on this, how you think Illmatic isn’t great is beyond me, and how you haven’t heard Ride the Lightning working at Mishka is pretty surprising to me.
December 1st, 2009 at 2:36 pm
Ease has the worst taste in music possible. I can almost assure you if he heard them back to back he’d even pick Nastradamus over Illmatic. Hell I bet he’d pick the Bluprint 3 over Illmatic.
Nick: Ride the Lightning was as pivotal to not only Metal but Rock in general as Illmatic was to Hip Hop. And Nas is as big of a tool nowadays as Metallica.
Ride the Lightening was the most intense thing I’d ever heard when I was a kid and in many ways it still is. It was lie nothing else out there when I first discovered it, Illmatic on the other hand was just the best piece of Hip Hop ever heard when it came out.
But were I to chose it’d be Illmatic because much like Ben said I don’t ever feel compelled to sit through all of Ride the Lightning album anymore and can always turn to Master of Puppets and And Justice For All (purists be damned) in it’s place.
December 1st, 2009 at 2:52 pm
I gotta say that I am gonna side with Mr. Escobar on this one. First off, in my opinion Metallica hadn’t even peaked yet context aside, that came certainly with master of puppets. As for Nas, this is unquestionably his best record, so it’s sort of an unfair fight cause I rather take out Metallica’s second best record and have the best Nas record around and metallica record around, ya smell me?
December 1st, 2009 at 3:20 pm
NUMBER ONE THE FIRST COMMENT IS RETARDED AND PUTS ME IN A BAD MOOD RITE OFF THE FUKIN BAT BECAUSE IF YOU DON’T KNOW THAN WHY DID YOU EVEN LEAVE A COMMENT. NUMBER TWO IM UNDER THE IMPRESSION THAT ITS MOSTLY KIDS ANSWERING THIS QUESTION AND IF YOU DONT KNOW THE PLEASURE OF BEING NINE YEARS OLD MASHING DOWN THE STREET ON A ROGER DECOSTER KNOCKIN OVER GARBAGE CANS LISTENING TO RIDE THE LIGHTNING AS LOUD AS THAT SHIT WILL PLAY THAN YOUR ANSWER IS INVALID ANYWAY, AND NUMBER THREE “RIDE THE LIGHTNING!”
December 1st, 2009 at 3:39 pm
NAS. Nas all the way. Illmatic is Nas’ best work. Hands down. It captures the QB hiphop stylings of the 90′s whereas Ride the Lightning was just “meh”.
December 1st, 2009 at 3:45 pm
Better Choice is Yours: Who comes off looking worse?
Ease’s “I have listened to Illmatic out of curiosity and it’s not great”
Vs.
Prolly’s “Ride the Lightning was just meh”
December 1st, 2009 at 4:29 pm
Illmatic.
December 1st, 2009 at 4:31 pm
this battle is like putting Mozart’s pieces against lightning bolts ‘wonderful rainbow’
can’t pick either or.
i say neither they both sold out in the end. (washed up)
December 1st, 2009 at 5:45 pm
Illmatic. The rest of Nas’ catalog pales in comparison, but I could easily satisfy my desire to listen to Metallica w/o Ride the Lightning. That isn’t to say Ride the Lightning is bad by any means, but Nas doesn’t have a Master of Puppets or Kill ‘Em All or …And Justice or Black Album (I think you get my point) to balance out the awesomeness of Illmatic.
December 1st, 2009 at 6:12 pm
RIP CLIFF
December 1st, 2009 at 9:07 pm
If you asked me this when I was thirteen, it would have been Ride the Lightning.
But I’m not thirteen anymore, so Illmatic takes it. I’ve been thinking about revisiting Metallica one of these days. I doubt my opinion will change.
December 1st, 2009 at 9:33 pm
illmatic
December 1st, 2009 at 9:43 pm
What Mike Jones said.
December 2nd, 2009 at 12:12 am
even if this was Metallica’s only album it would be a no contest GTFO situation in the sense that Illmatic is amongst the best musical contributions of the 20th motherfucking century.
one time for your mind
December 2nd, 2009 at 11:24 am
ha, metal vs rap – one of the oldest clashes around! I gotta say that they’re both on par with each other in terms of power and influence, although my metal-lovin ear drums lean more to Metallica. Plus I’ve been listening to Ride as of late.
December 2nd, 2009 at 12:39 pm
Nas Illmatic wins.
It’s his debut album and it’s still badass…The other is Metallica’s second album…and I am sure we will never run out of Metallica albums if they get their way.
December 2nd, 2009 at 12:59 pm
I tried to like Illmatic after hearing that everybody thought it was important. I didn’t think it was that great.. I kinda liked Star Wars. I would say that I like Metallica’s demos and bad albums more than Nas.
December 2nd, 2009 at 3:05 pm
plz add Gazin’s comment to the idiocy of Prolly & Ease’s comments.
December 2nd, 2009 at 3:17 pm
Gazin’s also stated to me that he finds Souljah Boy’s collected work to be more compelling than Enter the 36 Chambers.
December 2nd, 2009 at 8:04 pm
RIDE THE LIGHTNING all the way…..Nas did Kelis wrong. plus its the drummer Lars who bitched and whined about Napster, the rest of the guys just plain thrash. listen to their first demo tape. omgomgomg
December 3rd, 2009 at 12:10 am
i have to go with naz but this not really a fair comparison because iILLMATIC is some of naz’s best work and KILL EM ALL is METALLICAS BEST ALBUM NOT RIDE THE LIGHTNING ( YA I SAID IT AND YOU KNOW IT) AND IF YOU DON’T go out and Get A 20$ bag of meth and get to work !!!!!
Holla
December 3rd, 2009 at 11:31 am
There is no arguing about this, why even compare these two albums? Ok, i have to agree that Naz have given us some bad ass tracks. But all in all I am a true Metallica fan and Ride the Lightning is one the best albums ever made.
Did I make myself clear on that? Or should I say: I vote for Ride the lightning.
December 3rd, 2009 at 3:54 pm
“TALLICA WINS HANDS DOWN! I NEVER SEEN NAS TOUR AND PLAY IN STADIUMS IN RUSSIA, MEXICO, ALL OF SOUTH AMERICA..NOT HATIN ON NAS- JUST SAYING IT’S TRYING TO PUT A KITTEN VS. A SABRETOOTH TIGER
December 3rd, 2009 at 5:15 pm
@JULIOABRUNO it’s not about tours its about which album is better and plus dude Nas has never looked like he wanted to be in part mainstream all he cares about is his rhyme book.
C’mon Son Get the fuck outta here with that bullshit.
Illmatic changed my taste in hip hop no doubt.
December 3rd, 2009 at 5:19 pm
LEFS: Nas mos definitely took his shot at being mainstream and failed. See the whole Nas Escobar & Nastradamus era.
December 3rd, 2009 at 7:49 pm
@My Pal the Crook i mean you have a point but if you go deep into his lyrics they nothing close to mainstream
December 3rd, 2009 at 11:32 pm
worst opinions in the history of choice is yours.
December 4th, 2009 at 9:18 am
@big baby campbell Your the worst Commenter in the history or choice is yours