Hip-Hop Legends: The G.O.A.T. Pt 2 - Nas

As far as hip-hop legends go, would it be a complete list if Nas wasn’t on the list? He’s one of the better lyricists of his time but his popularity grew not for his commercial success, but for his connection to listeners. It’s a career that didn’t stack up club bangers or chart-toppers. but still Nas made an impact on hip-hop that few have been able to achieve. His style was more spoken word, poetry to a beat for the masses struggling in the streets.

Nas burst into hip-hop notoriety with his first album Illimatic released by Columbia records in 1994. Instantly he gained praise from his audience and critics alike. While the album itself drew praises, when it came to sales or charts it flew under the radar. It wasn’t until later in his career that fans would go back and revisit the album and recognize the true greatness that was Illimatic. In 2001, it would reach platinum status 7 years after the initial release. However, Rolling Stone would name it in the top 500 albums of all-time reaching 44th on that list.

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In 1996 Nas would go on to release his second album It Was Written that would switch up his style ever so slightly to become more “radio friendly”. With songs like If I Ruled The World and Street Dreams. It was mission accomplished for the recording studio. Both songs were universally loved at the time, but it took Nas away from his roots, his lyrics. The songs achieved exactly what the studio set out to do, but it would set him on a path away from his strengths as an artist. Luckily for the artist, it put him on the radar of most hip-hop fans.

But if the transition to a more radio-friendly sound put him on the map, it was his beef with Jay-Z that cemented himself in greatness. His diss track Ether is arguably one of the top diss tracks to ever bless hip-hop. At the time, the two were going back and forth dropping lyrics calling out the other. Both artists had a similar style and technique. Both were New York artists with the mafiosao persona rapping about life in the streets. It was bound to blow up eventually. Ether can be credited as the track that started to tip Nas back away from commercial hip-hop and towards the die-hard fans of his early music. He digs deep into his bag of tricks on this track and gets back to his bread and butter, the lyrics.

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The hardest part of arguing Nas as the G.O.A.T. is what determines your qualifications. He’s arguably one of the best lyricists of all-time despite not having the sales as some of the other top artists. However, 14 studio albums spanning 25+years in hip-hop is a rarely matched feat. Commercial success doesn’t define greatness, and his career isn’t without it’s controversy, but it would be hard to hold Nas out of the discussion when talking best that ever did it.