---
title: Fashawn to pay homage to 'Illmatic'
description: <p>When I first listened to Fashawn it was over a Nasty Nas instrumental called 'Memory Lane' from Nas's classic album, 'Illmatic'. Now we've all heard emcees go in over other peoples beats as an homage, but as a result of the aforementioned song, Fashawn has decided to take it further and do an entire street-album (mixtape) in similar fashion called - 'Ode to Illmatic'.</p>
---

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# [Fashawn to pay homage to 'Illmatic'](https://blog.a3cfestival.com/post/news/fashawn-to-pay-homage-to-illmatic)

 Written by [LuisReyes](https://blog.a3cfestival.com/list/author/luisreyes) | Mar 26

When I first listened to **Fashawn** it was over a **Nasty Nas** instrumental called *'Memory Lane*' from **Nas's** classic album, *'Illmatic'*. Now we've all heard emcees go in over other peoples beats as an homage, but as a result of the aforementioned song, Fashawn has decided to take it further and do an entire street-album (mixtape) in similar fashion called - *'Ode to Illmatic'.*

On **Nas's** debut album there was only one guest appearance who was **AZ** on the song *'Life's a Bitch'*. So as proof that Fash is most likely using the right formula, the only guest feature on the upcoming mixtape is **Talib Kweli** on, you guessed it,*['Life's a Bitch'](http://www.xxlmag.com/online/?p=74380)*.

In [this video](http://www.xxlmag.com/online/?p=74444) Fashawn explains a few more details about how the idea came about to do an entire mixtape tribute.

Spotted at [XXL](http://www.xxlmag.com)

[View full post](https://blog.a3cfestival.com/post/news/fashawn-to-pay-homage-to-illmatic)

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