Nasir bin Olu Dara Jones (pronounced /nɑːˈsɪər/ ; born September 14, 1973), who performs under the mononym Nas ( /ˈnɑːz/ ), formerly Nasty Nas , is an American rapper and actor. The son of jazz musician Olu Dara, he was born and raised in the Queensbridge housing projects in New York City. Although he dropped out of middle school, he managed to attain a high degree of literacy which is prominent in his lyrics. His debut album Illmatic , was released in 1994 on Columbia Records. Illmatic was critically acclaimed and would go on to be widely hailed a classic. Nas was part of hip-hop supergroup The Firm, which released one album.
From 2001 to 2005, Nas was involved in a widely publicized feud with rapper Jay-Z; both rappers verbally attacked each other in their songs. The two formally ended their rivalry through duet performances at concerts sponsored by New York City-area hip-hop radio stations. In 2006, he was listed number five on MTV's 10 Greatest MCs of All Time. Also in 2006, he signed to Def Jam, releasing his albums Hip Hop Is Dead in 2006 and an untitled album in 2008.
Early life
Nas was born Nasir bin Olu Dara Jones in Crown Heights, Brooklyn, New York. His father, Olu Dara, is a jazz and blues musician from Mississippi. His mother, Fannie Ann Jones, was a Postal Service worker. He has one sibling, a brother named Jabari Fret who assumes the alias Jungle. While his family lived in Crown Heights, Brooklyn, Nas would play the trumpet on his home stoop at age four. His family moved to the Queensbridge Houses in the late 1970s. Nas began writing rhymes at the age of nine. His neighbor, Willy "Ill Will" Graham, influenced Nas's interest in hip hop by playing him records. Nas' parents divorced in 1985, and he dropped out of school in the eighth grade. He educated himself, reading about African culture and civilization, the 360° Lessons of the Nubian Islamic Hebrews scrolls, the Bible and the Qur'an.
Career
As a teenager, Nas enlisted his best friend and upstairs neighbor Willy "Ill Will Graham" as his DJ. Nas first went by the nickname Kid Wave before adopting his more commonly known alias of Nasty Nas.
In 1991, Nas performed on Main Source's "Live at the Barbeque", establishing himself as a teenage prodigy. In mid-1992, Nas was approached by MC Serch of 3rd Bass, who became his manager and secured Nas a record deal with Columbia Records the same year. Nas made his solo debut under the name of "Nasty Nas" on the single "Halftime" from Serch's soundtrack for the film Zebrahead . The single increased the buzz surrounding Nas and when MC Serch's solo album was released later in the year, Nas’ standout appearance on "Back to the Grill Again" only intensified interest. Hailed as the second coming of Rakim, his rhyming skills attracted a significant amount of attention within the hip-hop community.
1994: Illmatic
In 1994, Nas's debut album, Illmatic , was finally released. It was awarded Five Mics from The Source . It also featured production from Large Professor, Pete Rock, Q-Tip, L.E.S. and DJ Premier, as well as guest appearances from Nas' friend AZ and his father Olu Dara. The album spawned several hit singles: "The World Is Yours", "It Ain't Hard to Tell", and "One Love". Shaheem Reid of MTV News coined Illmatic as "the first classic LP" of 1994. Nas performed the song "One on One" for the movie Street Fighter . In 1995, Nas did guest performances on the albums Doe or Die by AZ, The Infamous by Mobb Deep, Only Built 4 Cuban Linx by Raekwon and 4,5,6 by Kool G Rap.
1996–1998: It Was Written and The Firm
Columbia Records began to press Nas to work towards more commercial topics, such as that of The Notorious B.I.G., who had become successful by releasing street singles that still retained pop-friendly appeal. Nas traded manager MC Serch for Steve Stoute, and began preparation for his second LP, It Was Written , consciously working towards a crossover-oriented sound. It Was Written, chiefly produced by Tone and Poke of Trackmasters, was released during the summer of 1996. Two singles, "If I Ruled the World (Imagine That)" (featuring Lauryn Hill of The Fugees) and "Street Dreams", including a remix with R. Kelly were instant hits. These songs were promoted by big-budget music videos directed by Hype Williams, making Nas a common name among mainstream hip-hop. It Was Written featured the debut of The Firm, a super group consisting of Nas, AZ, Foxy Brown, and Cormega. The album also expanded on Nas' Escobar persona, who lived more of a Scarface / Casino -esque lifestyle. On the other hand, Illmatic , which, while having numerous references to Scarface protagonist Tony Montana, was more about his life as a teenager in the projects.
Signed to Dr. Dre's Aftermath Entertainment label, The Firm 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. In addition to the firing of Cormega, Alex Trojano was featured as a start up producer in The Firm. Cormega subsequently became one of Nas' most vocal opponents and released a number of underground hip hop singles "dissing" Nas, Stoute, and Nature, who replaced Cormega as the fourth member of The Firm. Nas, Foxy Brown, AZ, and Nature Present The Firm: The Album was finally released in 1997 to mixed reviews. The album failed to live up to its expected sales, despite being certified platinum, and the members of the group disbanded to go their separate ways.
During this period, Nas was one of five rappers (the others being B-Real, Dr. Dre, KRS-One and RBX) in the hip hop super-group Group Therapy, who appeared on the song "East Coast/West Coast Killas" from Dr. Dre Presents the Aftermath . In 1998, Nas co-wrote and starred in Hype Williams' 1998 feature film Belly .
1999–2000: I Am… and Nastradamus
In 1998, Nas began work on a double album, to be entitled I Am… The Autobiography ; he intended it as the middle ground between Illmatic and It Was Written , with each track detailing a part of his life. The album was completed in early 1999, and a music video was shot for its lead single, "Nas Is Like." It was produced by DJ Premier and contained vocal samples from "It Ain't Hard to Tell." Music critic M.F. DiBella noticed that Nas also covered "politics, the state of hip-hop, Y2K, race, and religion with his own unique perspective" in the album besides autobiographical lyrics. Much of the LP was leaked into MP3 format onto the Internet and Nas and Stoute quickly recorded enough substitute material to constitute a single-disc release.
The second single for I Am… was "Hate Me Now," featuring Sean "P. Diddy" Combs, which was used as an example by Nas' critics of him moving towards commercial themes. The video featured Nas and Combs being crucified in a manner similar to Jesus; after the video was completed, Combs 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. Within minutes of the broadcast, Combs and his bodyguards allegedly made their 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.
Columbia had scheduled to release the pirated material from I Am… under the title Nastradamus during the latter half of 1999, but, at the last minute, Nas decided to record an entire new album for the 1999 release of Nastradamus . Nastradamus was therefore rushed to meet a November release date. Though critics were not kind to the album, it did result in a minor hit, "You Owe Me." It was produced by Timbaland and featured R&B singer Ginuwine. The only pirated track from 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. The collection saw decent sales and received glowing reviews.
In 2000, QB's Finest was released on Nas's Ill Will Records. QB's Finest is a compilation album that featured Nas and a number of other rappers from Queensbridge projects, including Mobb Deep, Nature, Capone, the Bravehearts, Tragedy Khadafi, Millennium Thug and Cormega, who had briefly reconciled with Nas. The album also featured guest appearances from Queensbridge hip-hop legends Roxanne Shanté, MC Shan, and Marley Marl. Shan and Marley Marl both appeared on the lead single "Da Bridge 2001," which was based on Shan & Marl's 1986 recording "The Bridge."
2001: Stillmatic , feud with Jay-Z
Main article: Nas vs. Jay-Z feudAfter trading subliminal criticisms on various songs, freestyles and mixtape appearances, the highly publicized feud rivalry between Nas and Jay-Z became widely known to the public in 2001. Jay-Z, in his song "Takeover", criticized Nas by calling him "fake" and his career "lame". Nas responded with "Ether," in which he compared Jay-Z to such characters as J.J. Evans from the sitcom Good Times and cigarette company mascot Joe Camel. The song was included on Nas's fifth
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