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The son of a Jazz musician, Nas was born with a musical thirst, one that was channeled into hip hop under the influence of neighbor and friend ‘Ill Will’. Even after dropping out of high school, Nas continued to educate himself, utilizing his intellectual life view in his rhymes as he began to garner attention from the likes of producer Large Professor. At just 18, Nas recorded a stand-out verse on Main Source’s ‘Live at The Barbeque’ propelling him to new heights and even securing him a record deal from Columbia under the management of 3rd Bass’ ‘MC Serch’.
With the hype building, Nas was hailed as the best MC since ‘Rakim’ and delivered a certified classic album with his debut, Illmatic. Nas’ complex and insightful rhymes met with world class production and made for a hip hop album unlike anything before it. The album received five mics from ‘The Source’ and is now considered one of the greatest hip hop albums of all time.
The album however, did not translate into commercial success and with mounting pressure from his label, Nas began to slide towards a more mainstream sound for the next run of albums which included ‘I Am…’ and ‘Nastradamus’.
It took a now legendary beef with fellow New York rapper Jay Z to set him back on the right track. Nas countered Jay’s ‘The Takeover’ with the lethal diss song ‘Ether’ which fuelled the release of the ‘Stillmatic’ album and re-secured Nas’ place as one of Hip Hop’s premier talents. He has maintained this success through follow up albums and huge festival appearances and in 2014 a documentary was released documenting the importance of ‘Illmatic’ and Nas on Hip Hop’s history.
Given that they’ve already landed themselves quite the day job - they’ve served as the house band for Jimmy Fallon since 2009, following him to The Tonight Show earlier this year - it’s a wonder that The Roots manage to get anything else done, but they’ve continued to record and tour to an impressive degree over the past few years; in fact, drummer and de facto leader ?uestlove even managed to turn out a superb autobiography last year, too. On stage, Roots shows are a lavish affair; musically, they’re one of the most diverse, experimental groups currently in operation in hip hop, and that’s reflected in a diffuse range of instrumentation; in addition to the typical band setup, F. Knuckles provides additional percussion and the aptly-nicknamed Tuba Gooding, Jr. plays the sousaphone - for the uninitiated, think ‘giant tuba’ and you’re just about there. More than twenty five years since their formation, Black Thought’s relentless energy in delivering vocals has barely faded; with a flow and style of delivery that’s at once lively and laid-back, he sonically channels a young Guru of Gang Starr, whilst touching upon a broad range of subjects lyrically. At the core of the band’s live success, though, is ?uestlove; he’s one of the tightest drummers around, and his beat-keeping is one of the most prominent facets in making The Roots such an engaging live proposition.
NAS's performance simply-put, is a flash-back throughout the years and albums. If I Ruled The World (Imagine That), my most memorable song from his set. It was a chilled summer evening, at Summer Set Music Festival back in 2012. Crowd was buzzing with lighters in the air, speakers blasting and NAS putting all he had into that mic. Wearing a blue and white shirt and jeans, with a tiny bit of bling and his shades, he electrified the stage. Coming out and getting the crowd pumped by saying, "Put Your Hands Up" and, "I love the smoke ya'll putting up in the air" often. Beats spewed out of the speakers with no vocals, NAS actually rapped all his song! No lip-syncing, no background vocalists, just him and the crowd. Now of course the die-hard NAS fans knew every word and rapped along with NAS, as for me, I rapped what I remembered, but it didn't matter how much of a fan you were or were not when you saw his performance. Because when he finished you came out a die-hard fan and a satisfied concert-goer. Since NAS doesn't really put out much new stuff, its easy to catch up on his music. So you can enjoy his performance to the fullest, every time.