We kicked things off last week with the late, great 2Pac. This week, we’ll move to my favorite rapper alive and that’s Nas. Nas has been in the game over 25 years as he made his first appearance on a record in 1991. Live at the Barbeque by Main Source was the introduction to Nas. The verse on the track garnered so much attention for Nas and it landed him a record deal.
In 1994, Nas dropped his debut album, Illmatic and it has been called one of the best hip hop records of all-time. Nas have released 11 albums, which include a double disc, 2 collaboration and 3 compilations projects. Nas is viewed as one of the greatest rappers of all-time and have become a damn good entrepreneur. Check out my top 5 albums from Nas and see what you think. Peep my Music Monday featuring Nas.
Illmatic
As mentioned before, Illmatic is viewed as one of the greatest hip hop albums of all-time. For hip hop fans, if you listen to this album it paints a vivid picture. If you’re a fan of Nas, that’s one of the things that’s so unique about him. This coming April will be the 25th anniversary of the release of Illmatic. Illmatic is one of those albums that you can listen to from the beginning to the end. It’s hard to pick your favorite track off the album. N.Y. State of Mind, Life’s A Bitch, The World is Yours, One Love and It Ain’t Hard to Tell are my top tracks.
It Was Written
It Was Written was the 2nd album Nas released. The album was released a little over two years after the Illmatic album. For some people, It Was Written was considered to be the best overall record from Nas. The first single from the album featured Lauryn Hill. If I Ruled the World was totally different from anything that was on Illmatic. Trust me, we as fans didn’t complain and to have Lauryn Hill was huge. Lauryn Hill and the Fugees released their classic joint, The Score a few months earlier. Street Dreams and The Message was also singles released from It Was Written. Depending on the day, a lot of times I’ll pick It Was Written over the Illmatic record.
Stillmatic
When it comes to my 3rd favorite album from Nas, it has to be Stillmatic. Before this album, some people had written Nas off because the Nastradamus joint wasn’t that good. The album before Nastradamus, I Am wasn’t well-received especially how great his first two albums were. During this time, Nas was in a full-fledged feud with Jay-Z. Jay-Z dropped his Blueprint album and the track Takeover took aim at Nas and Mobb Deep. On this album, Nas responded with Ether and it’s one of the hardest diss records ever in hip hop. Nas responded with the Stillmatic album and it was amazing. With Stillmatic, Nas returned to his prominent level storytelling and it’s my 3rd favorite album from him.
The Lost Tapes
The Lost Tapes album was a compilation of songs from the I Am and Stillmatic sessions. To be honest, this album contains a lot of classic Nas joints that wouldn’t have been heard of. The Lost Tapes set is another one from Nas that you listen to from the start to finish without skipping. If I had to pick my favorite there are quite a few. Doo Rags, U Gotta Love It, No Ideas Original, Blaze A 50 and Purple are my top tracks. It was rumored to be another Lost Tapes project, but it never came about. Either way, this album is one of my favorite Nas albums.
Life Is Good
This is a tough one as it comes down between Life Is Good, I Am and the God’s Son album. Life is Good was the follow-up to the Untitled album, so we didn’t know what direction Nas was going. With the Untitled album, Nas was mire revolutionary than before. In between Life is Good and the Untitled album, he dropped a collaboration project called Distant Relatives with Damian Marley. The first single Nasty was released about a year before the album came out. After a while, people wondered where the new album was as he dropped another single in the spring of 2012. Daughters is one of my favorite joints by Nas of all-time because it’s one of them tracks that hit home. Life Is Good is currently my 5th favorite album from Nas because the album has great tracks on it.
What do you think about my top 5 albums from Nas? What do you think about Nas? What’s your top 5 Nas albums? Leave some feedback about my top 5 Nas albums or anything related to Nas.
