Sony Urban Music/Columbia Records Set to Release Nas: 10 Year Anniversary Illmatic Platinum Series

Sony Urban Music/Columbia Records is proud to announce the release of Nas: 10 Year Anniversary Illmatic Platinum Series, a deluxe two-CD set celebrating the 10th anniversary of the release of Nas' groundbreaking Illmatic, the blueprint album that laid the foundation for East Coast hip-hop in the 90s and beyond while establishing Nas as one of hip-hop's most electrifying and influential urban street poets. Nas: 10 Year Anniversary Illmatic Platinum Series will be in stores on Tuesday, March 30.

The first disk in the deluxe 10 Year Anniversary Illmatic Platinum Series contains a newly-remastered version of the original Illmatic, in its entirety. The second disk features new explicit remixes of four of Illmatic's choicest cuts -- "Life's A Bitch" (produced by Rockwilder), "The World Is Yours" (produced by Vibesmen), "One Love" (produced by Nick "FURY"), and "It Ain't Hard To Tell" (produced by Nick "FURY") -- as well as explicit album versions of two brand new Nas tracks: "On The Real" (produced by Marley Marl) and "Star Wars" (produced by Large Professor).

Since the release of Illmatic in 1994, Nas has proven himself to be one of hip-hop's most potent, durable, and abiding forces with a string of RIAA gold and platinum successes: Illmatic (1994: gold, platinum); It Was Written (1996: gold, 2x platinum); "Sweet Dreams" (1997: gold); I Am ... (1999: gold, 2x platinum); Nastradamus (1999: gold, platinum); Stillmatic (2002: gold, platinum); God's Son (2003: gold, platinum).

The week of its release in April 1994, Illmatic debuted at #12 on the Billboard 200 best-selling album chart and generated the hit singles "It Ain't Hard To Tell," "One Love," and "The World Is Yours," establishing a pattern for success that would continue unabated for a decade. Both 1996's It Was Written and 1999's I Am ... debuted at #1 on the Billboard 200, while albums including I Am ... , Stillmatic (2002), and God's Son (2003) have hit the #1 slot on Billboard's Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums chart. An album of Nas archival material, The Lost Tapes, released in 2002, debuted in the Top 10 of the Billboard 200.

  A new double album from Nas is scheduled to drop in the summer of 2004.

   www.iamnas.com
   www.columbiarecords.com

SOURCE: Columbia Records

CONTACT: Tony Ferguson of Columbia Records, Media, New York,
+1-212-833-4595, tony_ferguson@sonymusic.com

Web site: http://www.columbiarecords.com/
http://www.iamnas.com/