Word: nas
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...Nas walks the line. Between gangsta-leaning and Godfearing, between lustful and romantic, between the poetic and the scatological. He has starred in a movie (director Hype Williams' Belly), performed high-profile duets (with Mary J. Blige and Lauryn Hill), and dodged death (when his friend and fellow New Yorker Biggie Smalls was shot and killed in 1997, Nas went into virtual seclusion, fearing for his life). He's proud but not bombastic, he's casual in tone but almost always serious in content, and although his raps are deeply personal, he strives for the prophetic. He's a craftsman...
...Nas' first solo album, Illmatic (1994), was a rap classic--lean, smart and at times jazzy. His new album, I Am... (Columbia), aims even higher: the songs are grander, more aggressive, more cinematic. Several top pop performers stop by for duets, including Puff Daddy (on the booming Hate Me Now), hip-hop-soul singer Aaliyah (on the ballad You Won't See Me Tonight) and gangsta rapper DMX (on the rough-riding Life Is What You Make...
...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...
Just seven words and-poof!-an incalculable amount of damage done. WARW, Greaseman's employer, quickly suspended Greaseman after he made this remark and has subsequently fired him. But there have been rumblings, as Greaseman makes his groveling rounds in such reputable are-nas as Nightline, that the radio man will soon be back...
...years later, Nas blesses us with his masterful Illmatic, which includes his own ode to "Represent"-ing, held by some as the best track on the album. This Nas story by Aesop begins: "Straight up sh*t is real and any day can be your last in the jungle/get murdered on the humble guns'll blast n*ggas tumble." The next year, Nas' Queensbridge cohorts Mobb Deep commence their foremost LP with the line: "I keep it real pack the steel hold my nine...