This is the discography of Nas. Nas has sold more than 10 million units in U.S. alone.
Studio Albums
* Illmatic (1994) * It Was Written (1996) * I Am… (1999) * Nastradamus (1999) * Stillmatic (2001) * God's Son (2002) * Street's Disciple (2004) * Hip Hop Is Dead (2006) * Untitled (2008)
Collaboration Albums
* The Firm: The Album (with The Firm) (1997) * QB's Finest (with Various Artists) (2000) * Distant Relatives (with Damian Marley) (2010)
Compilation Albums
* From Illmatic to Stillmatic: The Remixes (2002) * The Lost Tapes (2002) * Greatest Hits (2007)
Nas has been praised for his ability to create a "devastating match between lyrics and production" by journalist Peter Shapiro, as well as creating a "potent evocation of life on the street", and being compared to Rakim for his lyrical technique. However, Shapiro also notes that Nas has "regressed" ever since his debut album Illmatic. Nas created a style of rapping that was more conversational than ever before". O.C. of D.I.T.C. comments in the book How to Rap: “Nas did the song backwards [‘Rewind’]... that was a brilliant idea”. Also in How to Rap, 2Mex of The Visionaries describes Nas’s flow as “effervescent”, Rah Digga says Nas’s lyrics have “intricacy”, Bootie Brown of The Pharcyde explains that Nas doesn’t always have to make words rhyme as he is “charismatic”, and Nas is also described as having a “densely packed” flow, with compound rhymes that “run over from one beat into the next or even into another bar”.
In 2006, Nas was ranked fifth on MTV's "10 Greatest MCs of All Time" list.
In 1994, Nas' ex-fiancée Carmen Bryan gave birth to their daughter, Destiny. Bryan had allegedly had a sexual relationship with Jay-Z and Allen Iverson after she and Nas had split up. Nas also briefly dated Mary J. Blige. In 2005, Nas married R&B singer Kelis in Atlanta after a two-year relationship. On April 30, 2009, a spokesperson confirmed that Kelis filed for divorce, citing irreconcilable differences. Kelis gave birth to his first son on July 21, 2009, although the event was soured by a disagreement which ended in Nas announcing the birth of his son, Knight, at a gig in Queens, NY, against Kelis' wishes.
According to attorneys for Kelis, Nas owes over $200,000 in child and spousal support as well as attorney's fees. In February 2010, her attorneys filed a contempt motion against Nas due to the fact that he had not yet paid said fees. He has pleaded not guilty to the charges. If convicted of contempt he could face time in jail.
On October 12, 2007, Nas announced that his new album would be called Nigger. Both left wing commentators, such as Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton, and the news station Fox News were outraged; Jackson called on entertainers to stop using the epithe et after comedian Michael Richards used it onstage in late 2006. Controversy escalated as thalbum’s impending release date drew nearer, going as far as to spark rumors that Def Jam was planning to drop Nas unless he changed the title. Additionally, Fort Greene, Brooklyn assemblyman Hakeem Jeffries requested New York’s Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli to withdraw $84 million from the state pension fund that has been invested into Universal and its parent company, Vivendi, if the album’s title was not changed. On the opposite side of the spectrum, many of the most famous names in the entertainment industry expressed a sense of trust in Nas for using the racial epithet as the title of his full-length EP.
Released on July 15, 2008, Untitled is Nas’ second album with Def Jam, in conjunction with his own imprint, The Jones Experience.
The title of Hip Hop is Dead album generated controversy, as many fans and artists (particularly those of Southern origin) began to debate over the actual state of rap music’s vitality. With this album, Nas became an unofficial leader of the “Hip Hop Is Dead” movement. Ghostface Killah, on his album Fishscale seemed to agree with Nas and cited Southern crunk and snap music as the primary reasons for why hip-hop was “dead”. Many Southern acts, such as rappers Big Boi from Outkast, Lil Boosie, T.I., Young Jeezy, Dem Franchize Boyz, and D4L took offense to the title, taking it to be directed at their region in particular.. However, southern rapper André 3000 from Outkast said in a interview that hip-hop is “dying”. After the controversy died down, some of the mentioned rappers would go on and collaborate with Nas on several songs, such as T.I. on Dr. Dre’s “Topless” and, more notably, Young Jeezy on his song “My President” off his 2008 album The Recession.
Nas worked on a song called “Shine On ‘Em” for the film Blood Diamond starring Leonardo DiCaprio and Djimon Hounsou, which opened in US theaters on December 8, 2006. His song “Thief’s Theme” was featured in one of the scenes in the Academy Award-winning movie The Departed directed by Martin Scorsese.
In January 2006, Nas signed a label deal with Def Jam, emphasizing collaboration over competition with former rival Jay-Z. Nas’s original title for his next album was Hip Hop Is Dead…The N (shortened to Hip Hop Is Dead), though the UK release features a bonus track at the end called “The N.” The album featured production from will.i.am, Kanye West, Dr. Dre, Scott Storch, and NBA All Star Chris Webber, as well as longtime Nas collaborators L.E.S. and Salaam Remi and newcomer Wyldfyer. A street single named “Where Y’all At” was released in June 2006. It was produced by Salaam Remi, and contained a sample from Nas “Made You Look,” but it did not make the final cut for Hip Hop Is Dead.
The title record and first single was produced by will.i.am, and contains the same melodic sample (“In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida”) as Nas’ 2004 single “Thief’s Theme.” The album debuted on Def Jam and Nas new imprint at that label, The Jones Experience, at number one on the Billboard 200 charts, selling 355,000 copies—Nas’s third number one album, along with It Was Written and I Am…. A music video for “Can’t Forget About You” premiered on February 5, 2007, the song featuring Chrisette Michele and sampling Nat King Cole’s song “Unforgettable”. Another video, Hustlers, featuring The Game, would follow. Also, Nas has stated in an interview with MTV that a video for “Black Republican” featuring Jay-Z is also underway. A reality series on MTV entitled Me and Mrs. Jones will feature the lives of Nas and Kelis, with Vibe magazine has reported that the show will premiere in 2008.
Nas released his seventh studio album, the critically acclaimed double-disc Street’s Disciple, on November 30, 2004. The album’s first singles were “Thief’s Theme” and “Bridging the Gap”, which features his father Olu Dara on vocals. The album also includes “These Are Our Heroes”, which accuses prominent sports stars and actors such as Kobe Bryant and O. J. Simpson of not setting good examples for the children who look up to them and neglecting their heritage and background. The videos for “Bridging the Gap” and “Just A Moment” received moderate airplay on MTV and BET. Although the album went platinum, its commercial profile was relatively low compared to the rapper’s previous releases.
Nas was featured on Kanye West’s album Late Registration on a song titled “We Major”. West said the song was Jay-Z’s favorite on the album, but West was unable to get Jay-Z to record a vocal for the final mix of the song. He also appeared on Damian Marley’s song “Road to Zion” and several other songs such as “Death Anniversary” and “It Wasn’t You” (featuring Lauryn Hill).
In December 2002, Nas released the God’s Son album including its lead single, “Made You Look” which utilized a pitched down sample of the IncredibR&B/Hip-Hop Albums charts despite widespread internet bootlegging. Time Magazine named his album best hip-hop album of the year. Vibe gave it four stars and The Source gave it four mics. The second single, “I Can”, which reworked elements from Beethoven’s “Für Elise”, became Nas’s biggest hit to date during the spring and summer of 2003, garnering substantial radio airplay on urban, rhythmic, and top 40 radio stations, as well as on the MTV and VH1 music video networks. God’s Son also includes several songs dedicated to memory of Nas’s mother, who died of cancer in 2002, including “Dance”. In 2003, Nas was featured on the Korn song “Play Me”, from Korn’s Take a Look in the Mirror LP. Also in 2003, a live performance in New York City, featuring Ludacris, Jadakiss, and Darryl McDaniels (of Run-D.M.C. fame), was released on DVD as Made You Look: God’s Son Live.
After Nas released God’s Son in 2002, he began helping The Bravehearts, made up of his younger brother Jungle and friend Wiz (Wizard), put together their debut album, Bravehearted. The album features guest appearances from Nas, Nashawn (Millennium Thug), Lil Jon, and Mya.
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.”
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 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.
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.
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.
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 singles, including “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.
Steve Huey of Allmusic described the lyrics in Illmatic as “highly literate” and “his raps superbly fluid regardless of the size of his vocabulary”. Lyrically, Nas is perceived as “able to evoke the bleak reality of ghetto “a detailed report to a close friend in prison about how allegiances within their group have shifted” life without losing hope or forgetting the good times”. Huey describes the Illmatic track “One Love” as. Reviewing Nas’s second album It Was Written, Leo Stanley of allmusic believed the rhymes to be not as complex as those in Illmatic but still “not only flow, but manage to tell coherent stories as well”. About.com ranked Illmatic as the greatest hip hop album of all time, and Prefix magazine praised it as “the best hip-hop record ever made”.
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
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.
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.
