What the hell has happened to Nas?. He was one of the most gifted, thought provoking and talented emcees to emerge in the early nineties since Rakim (an obvious comparison) had come out. Nas was the epitome of what every true emcee elevated to be, lyrics that were both complex but not hard to decipher, beats that complemented the lyrics and an attitude that stood for nothing but the underground. Nas was an emcee who understood the skill of putting words together to make a combination that could blow you away.

These days he’s gone from Nasty to Nas from Nas to CRAP! Nas is now a player, a don; he is something he’s not. Where did it all go wrong? Everything before the release of ‘It was written’ was practically faultless, from his debut on ‘Live at the BBQ’ with Main source, ‘Halftime’ on the Zebrahead soundtrack, ‘Back to the Grill’ on MC Serch’s solo joint and the full gem was released in ’94 ‘Illmatic’. I’ll admit that after this he did put out an average track, ‘One on one’ for the Streetfighter soundtrack but after further appearances on fellow Queensbridge Murderahs Mobb Deep’ s 2nd album ‘The infamous’ it seemed he hadn’t lost it.

Then in 1996 ‘If I ruled the world’ dropped a softer sounding track with Lauryn Hill guesting on the hook. This was a track that quickly gained pop success, but Nas is not a pop artist he is a street lyricist. I knew from that track alone that things would be downhill from there, the Trackmasterz had gotten a chokehold of this emcee having a watered down effect on his sound. The album ‘It was written’ proved me right, the Trackmasterz were dominant, leaving only a couple of tracks for Primo and Havoc to contribute. Large professor and Pete Rock were nowhere to be seen, even Premiers single contribution ‘I gave you power’ was not as strong as ‘NY state of mind’ and ‘Memory lane’.

Maybe it wasn’t all to do with the Trackmasterz sound, I’ll be honest I liked about a third of what they had done especially the ill as fuck ‘Shootouts’. Maybe the blame was with Nas; he was still lacking the lyrical wizardry he had displayed on his previous work. If you still don’t see what I mean, think about the first time your heard ‘ain’t hard to tell’ (the supposed radio friendly track from ‘Illmatic’) and compare it with ‘If I ruled the world’:

"It ain’t hard to tell/I excel then prevail/ the mic is contacted I attract clientele/My mic check is life or death/, breathing a sniper's breath/I exhale the yellow smoke of buddha through righteous step/ Deep like The Shining'/ Sparkle like a diamond /Sneak a Uzi on the island in my army jacket lining"
- It ain’t hard to tell

"Imagine smoking weed in the streets without cops harassing/ Imagine going to court with no trial / Lifestyle cruising blue behind my orders/ No welfare supporters/ more conscious of the way we raise our daughters"
- If I ruled the world

Then again it might be the record label, Columbia have their rap artists marketed so much that they crossover, examples: Cypress Hill, Fugees, Wyclef and Lord Tariq and Peter Gunz. But basically we can’t ignore the fact that the fault does lie with Nas, he’s seen the money and sold out. He should have taken Canibus’s advice and said "F@*K my record label, I appear courtesy of myself".

Now we have The Firm, an album that literally has about 3 good tracks (I’m struggling here to find something GOOD not amazing) and that’s pushing it, the rest was commercial garbage. The Mafioso stance doesn’t suit Nas; it was something the Wu populated on ‘Cuban linx.’ where he gave one of his last flawless verses on ‘Verbal Intercourse’. The Wu left it there after that album, it was a gimmick, we were all supposed to get the message of being original Nas didn’t.

With the release of ‘I AM...the autobiography’, a CD precceded by a bootleg promo that was actually better than the final release it sealed the fate of Nas as a great inspiration to all us true hip hop heads. Production was handled by LES, Timbaland ? and the Trackmasterz as well as guests like Scarface, DMX and Aaliyah it was nothing but a let down, the only 2 primo tracks on there shone like diamonds in a lump of shit as nas was truly inspired by this producer when it came to bringing it lyrically.

Its no good hoping to salvage an ‘Illmatic’ out of the 20+ tracks that’ll be circulating with the promo, ‘iam’ and the soon to be released ‘nastradamous’ , that’s not the point. Unless Nas gets the Trackmasterz out and Pete Rock, Premier, Havoc, RZA and the sorely missed Large Professor back in and a sense of the deepness of his lyricism back, we can all wave goodbye to a talented emcee lost to the world of commercialism.

I read in a Source interview in 1997 that Nas said he wasn’t ready to be an emcee in the Illmatic days, he was inexperienced and too caught up with getting blunted and the ‘sipping a Heineken’ mentality, he also pointed out that what had changed his outlook was Steve ‘The commissioner’ Stoute. He has been such a bad influence in our opinion that some of us even cheered when Puffy beat this guy down for the ‘hate me now’ video.

So Nas, if writing for Will Smith and making crap records with a female ‘rapper’ who does nothing but talk about clothes makes you ready now, like black sheep said ‘The choice is yours’. Steve Stoute may have had an input to your new outlook but its pretty obvious you ain’t using your own mind any more. Even AZ admits that the firm didn’t put 150% into that album so if your gonna churn out rubbish like that what’s the point of carrying on, your best days are behind you.

You gotta understand we ain’t playa hatin’!, we just miss our favorite emcee lost to the pop world, we don’t care how much money you make, you go out and get that, you deserve it but bring back the old Nas we love.

Remember that you’ll never regain the respect you once had from the people that made you....The REAL hip hop fans.
- Philip Oliver