“The Genesis” begins Nas' hip-hop Bible known as Illmatic. The track begins with vocals from his debut verse on Main Source’s 1991 track “Live At the Barbeque” and dialogue from the 1983 movie Wild Style before kicking in an instrumental used in the movie’s soundtrack. Nas and executive producer Faith Newman reunited in 2014 to talk about “The Genesis” for Illmatic’s 20th anniversary.

Nas' brother Jungle appeared on “The Genesis” and said the following:

Nas picked the beat for us to talk on in the background. I remember I didn’t like the beat. I was like, ‘Off this beat, man? This is garbage.’ I was mad young. I didn’t even understand what he was doing.