I can remember it like it was yesterday. I was ten years old, in my older brother’s room, rummaging through his cassette tapes, when I stumbled upon a blank tape with a worn label on it that read: NAS - ILLMATIC. This tape immediately stuck out to me as I had just recently read a Source Magazine “Year in Review” article where many of hip-hop’s popular artists at the time – none of whom I can remember except Queen Latifah and Kay-Gee from Naughty by Nature – were asked what were the top albums released in 1994, and the vast majority placed Nas’ Illmatic at the #1 slot. I had just recently been introduced to hip-hop through Method Man’s Tical, Redman’s Dare Iz A Darkside and Common’s Resurrection albums, so my interest was at an all-time high - I had to give it a listen! What was the big deal about this album that made every rapper praise it? What was all the hype about? Upon the first few listens, I admit, the only song I could have on repeat was “It Ain’t Hard to Tell”, only because it contained the least amount of curse words of all of the songs. Remember, I was only ten years old – so I had to be careful of what songs I played at full volume in my house. “Life’s A Bitch”, “It Ain’t Hard to Tell” and “Memory Lane” were also favorites, but more so for the beats, than the lyrics. Lyrically, “Represent” was a favorite simply because of the lines “This nigga raps with a razor, keep it under my tongue/ the school drop-out…never liked that shit from day one!” With a charismatic flow, undeniable voice and catchy rhythm to his writing, Nas quickly gained my respect as a dope emcee.A couple of years had passed and he had recently released “If I Ruled The World” featuring Lauryn Hill. It was at this moment I understood and appreciated the hype behind Illmatic and Nas was soon crowned “Best Rapper” in my eyes. As a twelve year old, the lines “Imagine smoking weed in the street without cops harassing” were nothing less than brilliant. He was the truth! It Was Written was released soon after and I was the first one with a copy – an edited copy of course. With that album as my audio-Bible, I studied it more than any class I’d ever studied for in middle school and began to mimic the same mannerisms, style, fashion and slang (dun language) – addressing friends as “God” and beginning every sentence with “Yo…” I was proud to be a Queens, NYC native, even though I had only spent four years of my life there. I began to research his lyrics, looking up any reference he made – thus, sparking my interest in learning about whatever he knew as fact: black history, women vs. hoes, money, drug dealing, politics, poverty, thug life, etc. I even started writing my own raps, applying the same cadence and rhyme structure as Esco –the best way an twelve year old could do, at least. In short, Nas could do no wrong with me. While I still enjoyed other artists like 2Pac, Biggie, Redman, Keith Murrary, and Prodigy from Mobb Deep– Nas reigned supreme in my eyes. All the ladies loved him and all the dudes wanted to be him. Even when he battled Jay-Z, who - so we thought at the time, was at his creative and commercial peak - I was the first one blasting “Ether” and boasting “I told you so” to anyone who thought for a moment that Nas fell off. Nas was the man!
It is easy to conclude that Nas was a role model of some sort for a period in my life. He was superman – or as he put it, “half man, half amazing”. But like every role model we look up to, there comes a point where we grow up and begin to recognize the more human traits of our leaders. We see their mistakes, faults and short comings. I admit, it took a long time for me to realize that Nas was not perfect. Crazy enough, it was shortly after I met him for the first time where I began to question him as an artist. Although I cannot pin-point exactly when my doubt of him arose, I can say it wasn’t an overnight occurrence. There were many instances that lead up to it. Perhaps it was when a news publication pointed out his inaccurate claims in his song “Our Heroes” from the Street’s Disciple album, where he complains “what ever happened to Weezy? The Red Fox's?/ Never got Emmy's but were real to me”, when actually, Isabel Sanford, the actress he made reference to has won an Emmy in her career. Where was Nas getting his facts from? And what other facts did he feed us through his music that was inaccurate?
Perhaps it was when he made the decision to leave Columbia Records and signed with one-time enemy Jay-Z. While I understood him leaving Columbia, I was in disbelief that he would even think about signing with his one-time foe. Sure, the battle was old news, but to me, it sent the wrong message to the masses: a sign of defeat. All of the “I told you so” comments I made earlier were irrelevant at that point. Nas won the battle, but Jay ultimately won the war. Perhaps it was when he made an appearance on The Colbert Report to promote his Untitled album, which had just recently been changed from Nigger, thus adding to the hype of its release. Steven Colbert cleverly set up Nas to explain the meaning behind his controversial Fox News diss, “Sly Fox”. Steven Colbert gave Nas the platform, all Nas had to do was explain. And while Nas didn’t stray away from the topic, he was less than convincing in articulately expressing his thoughts to Mr. Colbert, and America. Non-descriptive phrases such as “They do a lot of bad things…” did nothing to support the strong claims and accusations he made on his record. Why couldn’t he explain himself? Was he really down for the cause or was this all just a publicity stunt to sell records?
Whatever situation it was, it was clear that I was having a love/hate relationship with my one-time hero. Nevermind the overly public divorce with Kelis. Nevermind the IRS coming after him. Nevermind the scathing letter to Def Jam, voicing his dissatisfaction with the label, only exposing his poor business decisions. I was trying to give him the benefit of the doubt, by not allowing his blunders in real life sway my opinion of him as an artist, but it seemed like he was making it difficult for me to take up for him. Street’s Disciple, in my opinion, should have been one disk. And what happened to Quan? For Nas to “pass the baton” to him was very questionable, seeing how he had yet to prove himself worthy of longevity. Hip-Hop Is Dead, while a very relevant and thought-provoking issue at the time, failed to live up to the hype as an entire album. Reusing the Incredible Bongo Band "In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida" sample twice wasn’t a good look either. In short, “Black Republicans” saved it. Make no mistake, Nas is arguably our generation’s greatest writer. He’s been able to express thoughts and tell stories in ways we can only wish we could do. My problem with Nas is his inconsistency. One minute he’s on fire, the next minute he’s lack luster. One minute he’s shouting “Murder Inc!” the next its “Braaaaaveheaaaarts!”. It is clear that he is the type of artist who needs a fire lit from underneath him in order to get him going. At this moment, I think he is having a great run with his Untitled album and his collaborative effort with Damien Marley Distant Relatives (although there were more factual inaccuracies found on this project as well), but how long will this hold up? Recent internet releases lead me to believe that his next project will be a solid one, but you can never be too sure with Nas.
My question is this…how will we remember Nas? Will he go down as one of our greatest artists? Or will he be mentioned as a great artist that once was? Did we put too much pressure on him since Illmatic and It Was Written to have a flawless track record? Was Jay-Z right when he said he “Went from top 10 to not mentioned at all…”? It’s difficult to speak on Nas because we all know he is creative as much as he is talented. We cannot forget that this is the man who crafted Illmatic, arguably hip-hop’s greatest album. We cannot forget that this is the man who wrote “Verbal Intercourse”, arguably hip-hop’s greatest guest verse. We cannot forget that this is the man who made “Ether”, arguably hip-hop’s greatest diss record and comeback. One thing is for sure, only time will tell where he land on our top 5 and 10 list.
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