Word: nas
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: during 1990-1999
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...what we can loosely term the "underground," such shows are just weak-wack. Typical rap artists either stand on stage with nothing entertaining to deliver except the mere presence of their stardom (e.g., Jay-Z), or they riddle their acts with gimmicky stage props or too many cohorts (e.g., Nas, Wu-Tang). Or they repeat their tracks with genuine energy, but without anything you couldn't find in their albums (e.g., almost every other act you know). Futhermore, the crowd is forever a 5,000-one male/female ratio, and if the show's not on a college campus (or sometimes...
CHARGED. SEAN ("PUFFY") COMBS, 29, rap superstar; with assaulting Interscope record executive Steven Stoute; in New York City. Combs was reportedly upset by the video for the song Hate Me Now, by Stoute's client, rap artist Nas. It includes a guest appearance by Combs, who is nailed to a cross. The video was aired on MTV before the alleged assault. Stoute says Combs was one of three men who attacked him. Combs could face seven years in prison if found guilty...
...best songs on the album is Ghetto Prisoners, a stirring call for the poor and downtrodden to stand up and resist the powers that keep them down. "Get up/ Wake up/ Rise," raps Nas. Another sharply realized song is Undying Love, a violent tale of a man who kills his cheating lover and then himself. Other, less talented rappers might have turned the song into something venomous and exploitative. Nas' rendering of this bloody story reminds one of Bruce Springsteen's spare, misanthropic songs on Nebraska, or even of Raymond Carver's terse short stories. The last line in Undying...
Again and again on this CD, Nas raps about struggle and loss. Originally he recorded--then dropped from the album--a soulful, introspective song about growing up poor called Project Windows; here's hoping he will include it on a future album. Another song (one that made the cut), We Will Survive, mourns the shooting death of superstar rappers Tupac Shakur and Biggie Smalls. "[Smalls and I] were supposed to meet the night he died," says Nas. "I can't forget Biggie and Pac--they made it possible for rap music to blow...
...Nas is actively and eagerly building on their legacy. On one of his new songs, the insistent I Want to Talk to You, he attacks Congress, the President and various public officials, exhorting them to do something, anything, about the conditions of the inner city. In doing so, Nas breaks out of the pack of contemporary rappers. He's not just identifying problems. He's demanding solutions...