Joey Bada$$ released his debut mixtape, “1999,” in 2012 when he was just 17 years old. “1999” addresses complex issues, such as police violence and drug abuse, beyond the typical grasp of a teenager. Written by one of New York City’s most revered artists, Nas’s 1994 record, “Illmatic,” illustrates several themes parallel to those on “1999.” Nas also produced “Illmatic” when he was young; some sources claim he started at 16.

 What about New York produced the convoluted melodies and messages transmitted through these records, released almost two decades apart? What similarities can be tracked between New York’s climate in 1994 and 2012 that influenced these two masterpieces?

 The New York socio-political contexts in those years were reciprocal of each other: The early 1990s were marked by under-policing and rampant crime while the early 2010s’ overbearing “broken windows” and “stop-and-frisk” policing approaches sowed distrust in the police. The two climates forged similar but distinct vendettas against New York society.

 Nas was in a sea of young aspiring musicians and artists looking for an outlet in a decaying city. New York was feeling the consequences of the late ’80s to early ’90s crack cocaine era, when the use of the drug spiked and brought horrific consequences and increased crime, as Nas laments on “Life’s a Bitch”: “It’s real, grew up in trife life, did times or white lines / The high piped, murderous night times, the knife fights and blight crimes.”

“Similar to Nas wavering between angry messages and more hopeful ones, Joey flaunts his hardness and follows it with guilt about wanting to contribute to the violence that scares him in the first place.”

 Murder rates hit an all-time high in 1990 at 2,245 annual deaths and stayed consistent through 1994. These grim circumstances permeate Nas’s lyrics throughout “Illmatic.” In “N.Y. State of Mind,” behind a grimy beat punctuated by muddied boom-bap drums, Nas mentions the unbridled violence teeming on New York’s streets: “And claim some corners, crews without guns are goners. In broad daylight, stick-up kids, they run up on us.”

 Despite these dark verses, Nas flips the switch between the horrors he has experienced in New York and the opportunities the city offers. He jumps from nihilistic tracks that deal with the lack of motivation in such a cutthroat place, such as in “Life’s a Bitch” (“Life’s a bitch and then you die”), and the optimistic melodies in “The World is Yours.”

 Through a similar lens, Bada$$’s “1999” feels like a direct derivative and remix of “Illmatic.” After becoming the New York police commissioner in 1994, Bill Bratton implemented a system of “broken windows” policing to crack down on any signs of social unrest, such as graffiti and broken windows. This controversial strategy led to biased over-policing, also visible in the “stop-and-frisk policing,” which enabled officers to search individuals with reasonable suspicion. In 2002, there were 97,926 of these incidents and over 500,000 in 2008.

 This climate reset the table for another legendary “f— the world” tape to emerge from New York. Bada$$ and his label, PRO ERA, went 15/15 with beats on this tape, mixing in both irate messages, such as glorifying killing cops, to more somber fears of fearing senseless violence as a 17-year-old. On “Killuminati,” Bada$$ calls himself “the young cop killer,” and Capital Steez follows with, “Dirty cops still swervin’ on the block lookin’ for black kids.”

 On the next track, “Hardknock,” Bada$$ laments over a tinny arpeggiating synthesizer behind a gritty drum pattern: “One day I’m tryna have a wife and kids so I can’t live my life like this. And I ain’t trying to learn what lifeless is.” Similar to Nas wavering between angry messages and more hopeful ones, Bada$$ flaunts his hardness and follows it with guilt about wanting to contribute to the violence that scares him in the first place.

 “Illmatic” set the precedent for “1999” to follow, an album featuring technical excellence that brought to light the two sides — violence and opportunity — pulling at Bada$$ and Nas. Although written in distinct socio-political climates, they both do an exceptional job of conveying the pain they feel in their lives and the impacts of their New York backgrounds on their music.