Currently, I don’t have a favorite album. I listen to podcasts and sermons on my iPhone. Those are my favorite pieces of audio. But I can tell you vividly what my first favorite album was when I was 18. It was “Illmatic”.

I hadn’t really gotten into the album when it was first released in 1994. I was not buying albums until way later in life. (And even then it was few and far between. Spotify and Apple Music, and others have really changed the game for music consumption.).

When I first played it from start to finish for I was mesmerized first by the melody and then by the lyrics. Even though the album had some dark themes overall it was a pretty mellow one.

My favorite track there was “The World Is Yours”. That was an instant classic. I played it over and over during my freshman year of college. (I think I burned out my Winamp from playing it on my desktop so much.).

The song was a microcosm of how dope the album was with its lyricism and melodies. Illmatic was considered to be one of the greatest albums of all time with good reason.