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Nas
Despite his flair for dramatic overreaching, or perhaps
because of it, Nas became New York's favorite rapper in
the mid-'90s and remained near the top for over a
decade. Rivals and time challenged his stay at the top
of the New York rap scene — one of the more notable
challenges being his bout with Jay-Z in the early 2000s
— yet Nas soldiered on, continually changing his style
and stepping up his game. Over the years, Nas went from
being a young street hustler (Nasty Nas) to a boastful
gangsta (Nas Escobar) to a self-proclaimed poet/prophet
(Nastradamus) to a re-born encapsulation of himself (the
"Stillmatic" Nas). In addition, he worked with countless
legendary producers — DJ Premier, Large Professor, Pete
Rock, Dr. Dre, Trackmasters, Timbaland — and put
Queensbridge back on the map. Keep in mind, however,
that Nas attracted a sizable share of critics as well,
many of whom called him out for bluffing. After all, Nas
often showcased a flair for dramatic overreaching, his
ego knowing no limits. For better or worse, Nas was more
his own rhetorical construction than a reality,
precisely the reason why he was as criticized by his
rivals as he was celebrated by his following. Born Nasir
Jones, son of jazz musician Olu Dara, Nas dropped out of
school in the eighth grade, trading classrooms for the
streets of the rough Queensbridge projects, where he
learned "street mathematics" and began emulating rappers
like Big Daddy Kane, , and Kool G Rap. When he wasn't
hustling to survive, he was reading books on African
culture, Western civilization, lessons from the Five
Percent Nation, scriptures from the Qu'ran, and chapters
from the Bible. He eventually hooked up with Main Source
in 1991 and laid down a verse on the group's song "Live
at the Barbeque." The song became a New York favorite
thanks to Nas' blazing rhymes and soon everyone began
wondering who he was. A year later, MC Serch of 3rd Bass
approached him about contributing a track to the
Zebrahead soundtrack. Serch was the soundtrack's
executive producer and, like much of New York, had been
impressed by "Live at the Barbeque." Nas submitted
"Halftime" and the song proved so stunning that Serch
made it the soundtrack's lead-off track. Suddenly,
everyone began talking about Nas.
 Columbia
signed him to a major-label contract and all of New
York's finest producers wanted to work with him. For the
next two years, everyone waited as rumors began to
swell. When word hit the street that he was working with
DJ Premier, Large Professor, and Pete Rock— New York's
top producers in the early '90s — anticipation grew
exponentially. Finally, Illmatic hit the streets in
April 1994 and didn't disappoint. With only ten tracks,
the album wasn't overly long and had virtually no
lackluster moments — a flawless album. Nas handled
nearly every rhyme and never seemed short on lyrics.
Years later, Illmatic is still seen as featuring some of
the best lyrics hip-hop ever produced. To call Nas a
street poet wasn't an overstatement, but rather a matter
of fact. Even if the album didn't storm up the Billboard
charts, it garnered the respect of every hip-hop devotee
in New York and that was quite an accomplishment,
particularly for someone just having reached his
twenties. Following up Illmatic wouldn't be an easy task
and rather than try and top that album, Nas expanded his
approach for It Was Written. Released two years later in
1996, it no doubt had become one of the most anticipated
hip-hop albums ever. Here, Nas once again delivered an
album illed to the brim with street knowledge, but this
time opted to go with different producers — Havoc,
Trackmasters, Dr. Dre, L.E.S.— and some radio-friendly
pop hooks. The calculated moments worked: "If I Ruled
the World" and "Street Dreams" became national hits and
expanded Nas' reach outside of New York. With It Was
Written, he retained the hip-hop devotees who had
championed Illmatic and had won a mass audience at the
same time, a rare feat that he would struggle to
duplicate in the future. The first sign of Nas' critical
downfall came when he joined forces with Dr. Dre to
create the Firm , an ambitious supergroup that looked
invincible on paper; behind the production boards were
Dre and the Trackmasters with Nas, Foxy Brown, Nature,
and AZ on the mic.
Surprisingly, the much-heralded album flopped. Listening
to the album, it's fairly apparent why. Not only is it
an incredibly conceited and brash album, it's also
horribly calculated. Following the first setback of his
career, Nas took some much-needed time off before
returning in 1999 with two albums released only months
apart: I Am...The Autobiography and Nastradamus . With
these two similar albums, Nas moved further away from
the heartfelt and lyrically driven approach of Illmatic
in favor of the pop hooks that had made "If I Ruled the
World" and "Street Dreams" crossover hits. The second
single, "Hate Me Now," bitterly addressed his growing
legion of critics. More troubling though, the song
featured Puff Daddy, symbolic of the pop-rap style Nas
had aligned himself with.
Neither I Am nor Nastradamus proved successful for Nas.
Both albums sold
well and produced some impressive hit singles, but these
singles — "Hate Me Now," "You Owe Me," "Nas Is Like,"
and "Nastradamus" — were blatantly targeted at the mass
market with their pop-rap tendencies and further
alienated Nas' more loyal fan base. Suddenly, Nas was no
longer viewed as the prodigy he had been five years
earlier and was now seen as a rather generic New York
MC. This became perhaps most apparent when he resurfaced
in 2001 with the QB Finest album, which sold few copies
and generated only one substantial hit, the X-rated club
track "Oochie Wally." Even so, Nas had begun to take his
career in a new direction with QB Finest, establishing
both his own label, Ill Will, and his new posse,
Bravehearts. Moreover, he was no longer collaborating
with the likes of Timbaland and Puff Daddy; he had
returned to the streets to Queensbridge, where he began.
One event accelerated Nas' new direction: a cutting dis
by Jay-Z on the song "Takeover," which became the most
talked about song in New York seemingly overnight. Jay-Z
called out Nas for not having put out a "hot" album
since Illmatic and also made comments about having sex
with Nas' woman. And it didn't help that Jay-Z had
indeed claimed the title of New York's favorite MC at
the time, giving him ample justification to call out Nas,
who had admittedly been slacking since the mid-'90s.
Several months after the dis, in December 2001, Nas
released the album Stillmatic, the title a reference to
his one undeniable masterpiece, Illmatic, which had been
released nearly a decade earlier. Stillmatic opened with
the song "Ether," a very direct shot at Jay-Z (featuring
the chants "f*** Jay-Z "and "I will not lose"), followed
by
Nas' most aggressive single ever, "Get Ur Self A..."
(produced by ewcomer
Megahertz,one of New York's hottest producers at the
time). Both "Ether" and "Get Ur Self A...."
re-established Nas' pride among the stickle hip-hop
crowd and drove Stillmatic up the Billboard album chart
to number five, where it hovered for weeks. In addition,
Nas furthered his highly publicized return with dramatic
videos for "Get Ur Self A...." and "One Mic" — both of
which juxtaposed with "cash, money, hoes" videos of the
time, featuring a church rather than a club, for
instance — and toured the States, first a headlining
tour and then an opening tour for pop-rapper Usher.
During summer 2002, Nas infiltrated the pop market,
dueting with Brandy and Jennifer Lopez. Ironically,
while Nas reclaimed his popularity in 2002, Jay-Z s
popularity waned in the wake of the much-discussed bout
(though partly because Jay-Z flooded the market with
low-quality product). To only further fuel the
much-publicized bout between the two rivals, unreleased
comebacks circulated as MP3s via file-sharing networks
such as Audio Galaxy during 2002: a Nas track called "H
to the Omo," which had him questioning Jay-Z s
sexuality; and a Jay-Z track called "Super Ugly," which
had Jay-Z rapping over the track to "Get Ur Self A..."
for the first verse, Dr. Dre's "Bad Intentions" for the
second, and also had Jay-Z singing the hook "I got
myself a gun."
God's Son, rated a 4 mic album by "The Source", has
established that Nas is on the streets for good! Critics
went as far enough to say that it picked up where
Illmatic left off. God's Son shows the painful side of
Nas through song's like, "Dance" and "Heaven", dedicated
to his deceased mother, Ann Jones. He takes it further
to the streets with "Made You Look" the album's lead
single, produced by Salaam Remi. Agressive and new yet
with an old school vibe it makes the perfect lead
single. He also has something for the kids! Instead of
having a gangsta or playa cliche type song for the
second single, the much inspiring, I Can, teaches kids,
adolcents, and adults lessons on how to live a succesful
life. Nas also declares his relationship with, Pop/R&B
artist, Kelis in songs like "Hey Nas" and "Mastermind".
All around God's Son is a commercial classic! Though it
lacks the street grime of Illmatic it is an exqusite
follow up album to Stillmatic! - Leo Batista Mulattieri
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