The Evolution of Nas

Nasir bin Olu Dara Jones was born on September 14th, 1973, in Brooklyn, New York to Olu Dara, a jazz and blues musician, and Fannie Ann. He grew up in public housing in Queens, where his interest in hip-hop was born.

Nas was first heard on a record in 1991 on Main Source’s “Live at the Barbeque. A year later, he signed a record deal with Columbia records and started releasing singles for his debut album.

In April 1994, Nas dropped his debut album, Illmatic, featuring production, a legendary group of producers including Large Professor, Pete Rock, DJ Premier and Q-Tip. The album is considered by many hip-hop purists to be the greatest of all time. It features classic records such as “N.Y. State of Mind,” The World is Yours” and “One Love.”

In 1995, a year after his debut album dropped, Nas hopped on a lot of other New York rapper’s albums including Only Built 4 Cuban Linx by Raekwon, The Infamous by Mobb Deep, Doe or Die by AZ and 4,5,6 by Kool G Rap.

Nas’ second record came out in July 1996 and was highly anticipated due to the high praise on his debut project. While not held in as high regard as Illmatic, It Was Written is still respected in hip-hop circles. It arguably produced one of his most popular records ever, “If I Ruled the World (Imagine That).”

It Was Written and introduced to the supergroup of The Firm, which included Nas, Foxy Brown, AZ and Cormega. They ended up signing with Dr. Dre’s Aftermath Entertainment and dropped one project titled The Album. It didn’t quite live up to expectations in terms of sales and quality.

In 1998, Nas took to the movies starring in the film Belly, which was stacked with music talent including DMX, Method Man and Tionne Watkins.

Despite a disappointing effort with The Firm, Nas’ solo success did not take a hit at all, and dropped another successful album in 1999 with I Am…, which featured hit records, “Nas Is Like” and “Hate Me Now.”

Seven months later in 1999, Nas dropped Nastradamus, widely considered to be some of his weakest work as a solo artist.

After trading minor shots over the years, Jay-Z dropped “Takeover” on the Blueprint where he went full-steam ahead at Nas and Mobb Deep, which people forget. The song debuted at Hot 97’s Summer Jam Concert. Nas came back with one of the greatest diss songs of all time in “Ether.” The track did such a good job of dissing Jay that people now use the title of the song as a verb. For example, “he ethered him on that song.”

Thankfully, the two legendary MCs have squashed their beef.

“Ether” was featured on Nas’ fifth studio album, Stillamtic in 2001. After fans were disappointed with Nastradamus, fans flocked to this project and re-established him as one of the best rappers out.

A year later in December 2002, Nas released God’s Son, which is underrated in Nas’ exceptional discography. This record also featured two of Nas’ most recognizable hits including “Made You Look” and “I Can.”

After releasing albums almost every year since 1994, Nas took a two-year break and didn’t release another album until 2004. Street’s Disciple was the Queens MC’s seventh studio album and was released as a double album. This album was Nas’ last effort as a signee of Columbia records.

After leaving Columbia Records, Nas took his talents too Def Jam, where he would drop his eighth studio album, Hip Hop is Dead, a solid record in Nas’ storied discography.

No, you didn’t read the title of this slide wrong. Nas’ ninth studio album in 2008 was originally titled Nigger, but was then taken off due to controversy, so the record went untitled. Still the project was a huge success and is considered one of the best albums of his career. It features hit tracks, “Hero,” and “Make the World Go Round.”

One of Nas’ most eclectic records, in 2010 he collaborated with Jamaican reggae singer Damian Marley, son of Bob Marley, to release Distant Relatives. The album infused with elements of reggae and hip-hop ad made for an interesting listen for longtime Nas and rap fans.

This album so Nas is more mature than ever up to this point in his career. The album was written after he divorced singer Kelis and the cover photo, it shows Nas holding the green dress she wore at their wedding.

In 2013, Nas invested money into Mass Appeal Magazine, which led to him being a co-founder of Mass Appeal Records, which he has released all of his albums under since he founded the label.

Ignoring the disappointing collab album with Kanye West, NASIR, Nas has had a resurgence in recent years thanks to the three albums he’s released with talented producer Hit-Boy: King’s Disease, King’s Disease II, and King’s Disease III. The first of those three scored Nas his first Grammy win ever, winning for a Best rap album in 2021.