I haven't listened to a lot of Nas so this evening I strapped on some headphones that were pumping out his 'Hip hop is dead mixtape'. To complement the experience I consulted Wikipedia on the life and career of Kid Wave. (It seems to me that wikipedia might even make leaning about 50 Cent bearable - in the biz that's what they call a dis.)
I learned about his early life growing up living in the Queensbridge Housing projects. His dad played jazz trumpet and featured on more than one of his albums. I discovered that he was the first non-Wu Tang member to feature on any of their albums following the critical success of his debut album 'Illmatic'. I found out that his battle with Jay-Z started rather innocuously with a no-show at a recording session and with the big mouth of Jay-Z's protege Memphis Bleek. And as a result Nas career was reborn with the release of his album 'Stillmatic.'
So now I have two 'new' albums to check out, Illmatic and Stillmatic. Judging from the mixtape, which is still playing through my headphones, I might enjoy hearing them.
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3 comments:
Yeah man, Illmatic is amazing. It's definitely one of my top 5 albums. I don't know about Stillmatic except that 'Ether' his Jay-Z diss is fire.
Hip Hop is Dead was pretty underrated I thought. It's a solid album all the way through which is pretty rare.
I haven't heard Ether, but I've got Jay's 'Takeover' and that is a pretty massive rip on Nas.
I enjoyed Hip-Hop Is Dead too. Although strangely I haven't given it a lot of repeat listening. I'm not sure why.
"So yeah I sampled your voice, you was usin it wrong
You made it a hot line, I made it a hot song
And you ain't get a coin nigga you was gettin fucked and
I know who I paid God, Serchlite Publishing
Use your - BRAAAAAAAIN! You said you been in this ten
I've been in it five - smarten up Nas
Four albums in ten years nigga? I can divide
That's one every let's say two, two of them shits was due
One was - NAHHH, the other was "Illmatic"
That's a one hot album every ten year average
And that's so - LAAAAAAAME!" Jay-Z
"In '88 you was gettin chased through your buildin
Callin my crib and I ain't even give you my numbers
All I did was gave you a style for you to run with
Smilin in my face, glad to break bread with the god
Wearin Jaz chains, no tecs, no cash, no cars
No jail bars Jigga, no pies, no case
Just Hawaiian shirts, hangin with little Chase
You a fan, a phony, a fake, a pussy, a Stan
I still whip your ass, you thirty-six in a karate class
You Tae-bo hoe, tryna' work it out, you tryna' get brolic?
Ask me if I'm tryna' kick knowledge
Nah, I'm tryna' kick the shit you need to learn though
That ether, that shit that make your soul burn slow" Nas
Hard to say who got the best of it. It helped both of them really.
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