Nas
Nas (born Nasir bin Olu Dara Jones in Queens, New York City on September 14 , 1973) is an African-American hip-hop artist and rapper. At various times in his career, he has also gone by the aliases of Nasty Nas, Nas Escobar (after Colombian drug lord Pablo Escobar), God's Son, and Nastradamus. The son of jazz trumpeter Olu Dara and Ann Jones, Nas is perhaps best known for his rivalry with Jay-Z and his legendary debut, Illmatic (1994), which is widely-considered as one of the best hip-hop albums of all time.
Biography
Early years
Nas is the elder of Olu Dara and Ann Jones' two children. His younger brother, Jabari (nicknamed "Jungle" because he was born in the jungle city of Puntarenas, Costa Rica), would later become part of the hip hop group The Bravehearts. The family lived for a time in Brooklyn, before moving to the large Queens public housing project of Queensbridge. Olu Dara eventually left the household, and Ann Jones raised Nas on her own. Nas dropped out of school after the eighth grade and began selling drugs on the streets of New York while educating himself, reading about African culture and civilization, the Qur'an, the Bible and the Five Percent Nation.
In 1991, Nas made his on-record debut with a verse on Main Source's song "Live at the Barbeque." Hailed as the second coming of Rakim, his rhyming skills attracted a significant amount of attention within the hip-hop community, and he was soon approached by MC Serch (of 3rd Bass). Nas recorded the song "Halftime" for Serch's Zebrahead soundtrack.
Snippet of debut of Nas: Live at the BBQ
Illmatic
With Serch as his manager, Nas signed to Columbia Records in 1992. For two years, rumors flew about Nas' future as he worked on his debut album. Many were concerned that Columbia, being a major label, would try to dilute his New York based style. In 1994, the debut album, Illmatic was finally released. Featuring production from Large Professor, Pete Rock, Q-Tip (of A Tribe Called Quest) and DJ Premier, as well as guest appearances from Nas' friend AZ and his father Olu Dara on the song "Life's a Bitch", Illmatic was immediately hailed as a masterpiece by critics, and is still highly regarded as one of the definitive hip-hop albums of all time. Standout songs on the album included "NY State of Mind" (produced by Premier), "The World Is Yours" (produced by Pete Rock), "One Love" (produced by Q-Tip) and "It Ain't Hard To Tell" (produced by Large Professor), which featured a sample of Michael Jackson's hit song "Human Nature." Sales-wise however, possibly due to extensive bootlegging, the record sales fell below expectations, and Nas ended up trading manager MC Serch for Steve Stoute in preparation for his second LP, It Was Written.
It Was Written
It Was Written, chiefly produced by Poke and Tone of Trackmasters Entertainment, was released during the summer of 1996 and featured a more crossover oriented sound. Two of the songs on It Was Written, "If I Ruled The World (Imagine That)" (featuring Lauryn Hill of The Fugees) and "Street Dreams" (a remix with R. Kelly) were national hits, promoted by big-budget videos directed by Hype Williams, and made Nas a common name among more mainstream music fans. Other stand-out songs were "The Message" and "I Gave You Power," which tells a story from the perspective of a gun. The album also featured guest appearances from Mobb Deep, who became regular collaborators with Nas, Joel "Jo-Jo" Hailey of Jodeci, and the debut of The Firm, a supergroup consisting of Nas, AZ, Foxy Brown, and Cormega. The album featured more of a "Scarface" and "Casino" lifestyle as opposed to Illmatic which while having numerous references to Tony Montana and the theatrical hit featuring Al Pacino, was more about Nas as a youth, hustlin' and smoking reefer.
The Firm
The Firm signed to Dr. Dre's Aftermath Entertainment label, and began working on their debut album. Halfway through the production of the album, Cormega was fired from the group by Steve Stoute, who had unsuccessfully attempted to force Cormega to sign a deal with his management company. Cormega therefore became one of Nas' most vocal opponents, releasing a number of underground hip-hop singles dissing Nas, Stoute, and Nature, who was Cormega's replacement in The Firm. The Firm: The Album was finally released in 1997 to mixed reviews and lackluster sales and the members of the supergroup went their separate ways.
I Am
In 1998, Nas began work on a double album to be entitled I Am...The Autobiography, which he intended to be the middle ground between the extremes of Illmatic and It Was Written. The album was completed in early 1999, and a music video was shot for its lead single, "Nas Is Like," produced by DJ Premier and featuring vocal samples from "It Ain't Hard to Tell." However, the second disc of the LP was leaked in MP3 format onto the Internet, and Nas chose to reduce the album, now simply titled I Am..., to a single-disc LP, which Columbia released in April of 1999.
The second single for I Am was "Hate Me Now," featuring Sean "Puffy" Combs (now "Diddy"). Hype Williams shot an allegorical video for the single, which featured Nas and Puffy being crucified in a manner similar to Jesus; representative of how Nas' critics crucified him for allegedly going pop. After the video was completed, Combs, a Catholic, requested his crucifixion scene be edited out of the video. However, the unedited copy of the "Hate Me Now" video made its way to MTV, and was premiered on April 15, 1999 on TRL by Carson Daly. Upon learning that the original edit was the one that made it to broadcast, a furious Combs and his bodyguards allegedly made his way into Steve Stoute's office and assaulted him, at one point apparently hitting Stoute over the head with a champagne bottle. Stoute pressed charges, but he and Combs settled out-of-court that June.
Nastradamus
Columbia had scheduled to release the second, pirated disc of I Am under the title Nastradamus during the latter half of 1999, but, at the last minute, decided Nas should record an entirely new LP for release. Nastradamus was therefore rushed to meet a November release date, and though critics were not kind to the album, it did result in a minor hit single, the Timbaland-produced "You Owe Me," featuring R&B singer Ginuwine. The only song from the fabled second disc of I Am... to make it onto Nastradamus was "Project Windows," featuring Ronald Isley. A number of the other bootlegged tracks later made their way onto The Lost Tapes, a collection of underground Nas songs that was released by Columbia in September 2002.
QB's Finest, Stillmatic, the Nas/Jay-Z rivalry
Before the beef had started, Nas had a track on the "I Am" LP entilitled "Nas is Like". In this tune Nas compares him self to lifes luxuries. Now using the concept of this song Memphis Bleek coined this songs concept and made a song entitled "Memphis Bleek is" which Nas may have taken offence to. Some may call this the "biting" of an idea, frowned upon in the Hip-Hop world. On the same album from Memphis Bleek, there is also a song called "what you think of that" which contains the lyric "Ima ball till i fall what you think of that" In retaliation, Nas relased "Nastradamus," the title track of Nas' second 1999 album, which featured a line ("If you wanna ball till you fall/I can help you with that") that Memphis Bleek perceived as a dis Nas had based upon his line. Bleek therefore dissed Nas on the lead single of his The Understanding LP, "My Mind Right."
2000 saw the release of the first album on Nas' imprint Ill Will Records, named after a slain friend from Queensbridge. QB's Finest was a compilation album that featured Nas and a number of other rappers from Queensbridge, including Mobb Deep, Nature, Littles, The Bravehearts, and Cormega, who had briefly reconciled with Nas. The album also featured guest appearances from QB hip-hop legends Roxanne Shante, and MC Shan & Marley Marl, both of whom appeared on the lead single "Da Bridge 2001" (based on Shan & Marl's 1986 classic "The Bridge"). "Da Bridge 2001" also featured a response from Nas to Memphis Bleek, in which Nas calls out most of the Roc-a-Fella Records roster, including Bleek, Damon Dash, Beanie Sigel, and Jay-Z.
Nas later recorded the "Stillmatic Freestyle", which took the "Paid in Full" beat from Rakim and attacked Jay-Z and the entire Rocafella crew. On his critically-acclaimed 2001 album The Blueprint, Jay-Z dedicated half of the song "Takeover" to dissing Nas, claiming that Illmatic was his only decent album (the other half was a jab at Nas' colleague Prodigy from Mobb Deep).
Nas' response was "Ether", a battle record, accused Jay-Z of stealing ("biting") lyrics from The Notorious B.I.G. and brown-nosing Nas and other rappers for fame.
"Ether" was a staple track on his next album, Stillmatic which managed to be not only a critically hailed comeback album, but a commercial success as well, debuting at #7 on the Billboard album charts and featuring the hit singles "Got Ur Self A Gun" and "One Mic". The album also featured a track entitled "Rewind", in which Nas tells a typical story--but in reverse.
Jay-Z responded to "Ether" with a freestyle entitled "Supa Ugly." while going into detail about how himself and Allen Iverson both has sex with Nas's baby's mother, Carmen Bryan. "Me and the boy AI got more in common than just ballin and rhymin get it, more in Carmen I came in your Bentley backseat, skeeted in your jeep, left condoms on your baby seat". Nas dismissed the track by claiming that he was no longer with Carmen during the time the affair took place. By 2003, the two rappers had eventually ended their feud without violence or animosity.
The Lost Tapes
In 2002, Nas released The Lost Tapes, which included tracks from the "lost disc" of I Am..., underground mixtape favorites, and songs recorded during the Stillmatic sessions that did not make the album. While the use of tracks from various time periods of Nas' career made inconsistency an issue among some listeners, most were able to appreciate hearing tracks which reflected Nas' earlier work, and the compilation received favorable reviews.
God's Son
In December 2002, Nas releasedGod's Son album. The lead single, "Made You Look" created enough street buzz to allow the album to debut at #18 on the Billboard charts despite widespread internet bootlegging. The second single, the inspirational "I Can", which reworked elements from Beethoven's "Fur Elise", became Nas' biggest hit to date during the spring and summer of 2003, garnering substantial radio airplay on urban, rhythmic, and top 40 radio stations, as well as on the MTV and VH1 music video networks.
In 2003, Nas was featured on the KoЯn song "Play Me", from KoЯn's Take a Look in the Mirror LP. Nas is the driving force of the song, with KoЯn frontman Jonathan Davis having only one section of vocals in the entire song.
Street's Disciple
Nas released his seventh studio album, the double-disc Street's Disciple, on November 30, 2004. The album's first singles were "Thief's Theme" and "Bridging the Gap", which features his father Olu Dara on vocals. There is also a song, "These are Our Heroes", which disses Kobe Bryant. The videos for "Bridging the Gap" and "Just A Moment" recieved heavy play on MTV and BET.
NASDAQ Dow Jones, The Lost Tapes 2, Nas vs. 50 Cent
At a free concert in Central Park, New York, Nas made a statement regarding the quality of 50 Cent's music. "this is the real shit, not that 50 cent shit!"
In response, 50 Cent included a stab at Nas by speaking negatively of his fiancé Kelis (to whom Nas is now married) on one of his more recent songs entitled "Piggy Bank"; Nas was quoted as saying that he feels no obligation to retaliate, remarking "[50 has] got a good five to six more albums before I can really respond to him."
The much anticipated response to 50 Cent's verbal jab came in July of 2005. The song, "Don't Body Ya Self (MC Burial)", taunts 50 and his G-Unit crew by claiming that their earlier dis was directed not towards Nas but towards his family because 50 was afraid to get into a war of words with Nas. He threatens to end 50's career and claims to be rap's real King of New York. Nas has stated in an interwiew that he misses 50 cent(they were both on Columbia Records), however, most fans anticipate that another diss will come on Nas' next album.
Nas' next album, tentatively titled NASDAQ Dow Jones, is slated for release in early to mid 2006. Nas also hopes to aim for a Fall 2005 release date for The Lost Tapes 2".
Nas has one daughter, Destiny (who is credited as the executive producer of Stillmatic), and married R&B singer Kelis on January 8, 2005.
Nas is featured on Kanye West's album Late Registration. The song is called "We Major". Kanye West said the song was Jay-Z's favorite on the album and even freestyled near the end of the Song (but was too late to make the final version). However, there's still a chance for a remix.
Since the song with Kanye West [We Major], Nas has recorded various song/verses. He is featured on the song "Road To Zion" off Damien Marley's album, Dirty Harry's blend mixtape (all tracks were Nas mixes) and DJ Clue's two Fidel Cashflow mixtapes. Two of his biggest songs were "Death Anniversary" and "It Wasn't You" feat Lauryn Hill. Many speculate that the aforementioned songs will appear on Nas' upcoming album The Lost Tapes 2, which will contain unreleased material that didn't make it on God's Son and Street Disciple.
Perhaps one of the biggest events to happen in Nas' career, and possibility hip hop history was the guest appearance Nas made at Jay-Z's "I Declare War" concert. At the concert, Jay-Z said "It's bigger than 'I declare war'. Let's go, Esco!" and Nas came out. Nas performed the hook to Jay-Z's "Dead Presidents" and did his own songs like NY State of Mind, Hate Me Now and etc. The show proved that two artists, who perviously beefed, can now make peace together.
Discography
Albums
- 1994: Illmatic #12 US
- 1996: It Was Written #1 US (4 weeks), #38 UK
- 1997: Nas, Foxy Brown, AZ, and Nature Present The Firm: The Album
- 1999: I Am... #1 US (2 weeks), #31 UK
- 1999: Nastradamus #7 US
- 2000: Nas and Ill Will Records Present: QB's Finest
- 2001: Stillmatic
- 2002: The Lost Tapes
- 2002: God's Son #12 US, #75 UK
- 2003: From Illmatic to Stillmatic...The Remixes
- 2004: Street's Disciple #5 US, #45 UK
Singles
- 1993: "Halftime"
- 1994: "The World is Yours"
- 1994: "It Ain't Hard To Tell" (US #91, UK #64)
- 1994: "One Love"
- 1996: "If I Ruled The World (Imagine That)" (featuring Lauryn Hill of The Fugees) (US #53, UK #12)
- 1996: "Street Dreams" (US #22, UK #12 (1997 release))
- 1997: "Street Dreams [Remix]" (featuring R. Kelly)
- 1997: "Firm Biz" (The Firm--Nas, Foxy Brown, AZ, and Nature featuring Dawn Robinson)
- 1997: "Head Over Heels" (Allure featuring Nas) (UK #18)
- 1999: "Nas is Like" (US #86)
- 1999: "Hate Me Now" (featuring Puff Daddy) (US #62, UK #14)
- 1999: "Nastradamus" (US #92, UK #24 (2000 release))
- 1999: "Hot Boyz" (Missy "Misdemeanor" Elliott featuring Nas, Eve, & Q-Tip) (US #5)
- 2000: "U Owe Me" (featuring Ginuwine) (US #59)
- 2000: "Da Bridge 2001" (QB's Finest featuring Nas, Mobb Deep, MC Shan, Marley Marl, Cormega, and Nature)
- 2001: "Oochie Wally [Remix]" ( featuring Nas and Bravehearts) (US #26, UK #30)
- 2001: "Got Ur Self a Gun" a.k.a. "Got Ur Self A..." (US #87, UK #30 (2002 release))
- 2002: "One Mic" (US #43)
- 2002: "I'm Gonna Be Alright (Remix)" (Jennifer Lopez featuring Nas) (US #10)
- 2003: "Made Ya Look" a.k.a. "Made You Look" (US #32, UK #27)
- 2003: "Made Ya Look [Remix]" (featuring Jadakiss and Ludacris)
- 2003: "I Can" (US #12, UK #19)
- 2004: "Bridging the Gap" (featuring Olu Dara) (US #94, UK #18)
- 2004: "Thief's Theme"
- 2005: "Just A Moment" (featuring Quan)
- 2005: "In Public" (Kelis featuring Nas) (#17 UK)
References
- "Shots fired during UK rap concert", BBC News. March 22 2005. Retrieved October 26 2005.