Nas

Nas is heralded as one of New York's leading rap voices. Whether proclaiming himself as "Nasty Nas" or "Nas Escobar" or "Nastradamus" or "God's Son," Nas evolved from a young street disciple to a vain all-knowing sage to a humbled godly teacher. Such growth made every album release an event and thus prolonged the rapper's increasingly storied career to epic proportions.

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. Despite dropping out of school, Nas developed a high degree of literacy and street smarts that would later characterize his rhymes. Columbia Records eventually signed Nas. DJ Premier, Large Professor, and Pete Rock, some of the city's finest producers, ultimately joined the young rapper and began work on Illmatic. When Columbia finally released the highly anticipated album in April 1994, Illmatic sold very well, spawned multiple hits, and earned unanimous acclaim, followed soon after by classic status. The two years leading up to Nas' follow-up, It Was Written, thus brought another wave of enormous anticipation. Unlike the straightforward Illmatic, It Was Written made numerous concessions to the pop crossover market, most notably on the two hit singles, "Street Dreams" and "If I Ruled the World (Imagine That)," broadening Nas' appeal greatly and awarded him the MTV-sanctioned crossover success he sought.

In addition to his endless stream of hits by the industry's most successful producers such as Trackmasters, Puff Daddy, and Timbaland, among others, he popularly co-starred in the Hype Williams-directed film Belly alongside DMX and contributed to the soundtrack. Furthermore, he led a short-lived supergroup of New York rappers known as the Firm (also comprised of rappers Foxy Brown, AZ, and Nature and also producers Dr. Dre and the Trackmasters) and assembled a broad coalition of fellow Queensbridge rappers for the QB Finest compilation.

For every crossover fan Nas won with his dramatic endlessly MTV-aired videos, he lost support in the streets, where many initial supporters felt he had sold out and abandoned hip-hop ideals in favor of commercial success. 2001 marked a key turning point for Nas' declining career. The rapper's personal life became increasingly conflicted, as his mother began suffering from cancer. To make matters worse, longtime rival Jay-Z pointedly dissed Nas on "Takeover," the much-discussed lead song from his universally acclaimed Blueprint album. Jay-Z called out Nas for not having put out a "hot" album since Illmatic, and also made demeaning comments about Nas' girlfriend cheating on him. Nas responded strikingly in December 2001 with Stillmatic, the title a reference to his one undeniable masterpiece, Illmatic. Amid all of the drama, Nas managed to salvage his esteemed reputation and reclaim his lofty status atop the New York scene. Stillmatic earned immediate wide acclaim from fans and critics alike and sold impressively.