Nasir Jones
BORN: Queensbridge, NY
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,
Rakim, 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 20s.
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 filled 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 that 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 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 quickly 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 newcomer 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. 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 and Dr. Dre's "Bad Intentions" for the
second, and also had Jay-Z singing the hook "I got myself a