On April 15, 1994, Nasir Bin Olu Dara Jones, a 20-year-old lyricist from New York’s Queensbridge projects, released his debut album, Illmatic. It quickly proved to be a hip-hop game-changer, helping to resurrect a floundering New York rap scene and inspiring decades of complex rhymes about street life. This spring, Nas marks the 20th anniversary of his celebrated album with a Sony Legacy reissue...