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Nas Is Born
Nasir Jones was born in Queens, New York on Semptember 14, 1973. Son of a Jazz musician and postal worker, Nas started playing trumpet and writing rhymes at an early age. ("Nas Biography"). The fact that he was born into a musical family highly influenced his decision to become an artist and set him on the right track to be the legend he is today. -
Nas Drops out of school and picks up the street life.
Nasir dropped out of school when he was in the eight grade. He then turned to the dangerous street life of the Queensbridge projects that he grew up in. Nonetheless, he managed to increase his level of literacy through constant reading and studying african culture (Birchmeier). His rough teenage years helped him grow as an artist and inspired him to share his experiences of growing up in the projects. -
Nas Releases Illmatic
At the age of 20 years old Nas released his debut album Illmatic. This release was an instant sucess as hype had been growing around the young rapper from Queensbridge. Nas exemplified his supreme storytelling and word play on this album as shown in his music video for One Love. He also is praised for doing an amazing job of portraying what it is really like to grow up in the projects on this opening album. -
"It Was Written"
Two Years after Nas released his debut album, he dropped the next project in his very long career. "It Was Written" was fairly different than "Illmatic". On his second installment in his discography Nas had significantly more songs that were "pop crossover" songs. These songs, such as "If I Ruled the World(Imagine That)", gained him more "mainstream fans" while the hip-hop purists were dissapointed by these songs (Birchmeier). This did, however, help Nas gain more recognition. -
Nas joins Jay-Z's label
After a long battle with Jay-Z for the top spot in the New York rap game, Nas came to terms with his long time rival. He made a deal with Jay-Z's Def Jam records concerning Nas' next two album releases ("Rapper Nas to Join Label Led by Former Rival Jay-Z"). This was a big step forward in that Nas and Jay-Z were able to reconcile even after their brutal altercations. -
Nas Drops His Greatest Hits Album
In 2007 Nas released his Greatest Hits album. It included six of the 10 songs from his debut, Illmatic. It also included one new song, Surviving the Times, in which the now aged and matured artist looks back over his vast career to date ("Surviving the Times"). The song and the accompanying music video have a nostalgic vibe that makes it seem like Nas is proud of all of his accomplishments and wants to continue making classics. -
"Life is Good"
Nas' most recent album release was in 2012 when he released the album titled "Life it Good". After many years of mediocrity Nas seemed to finally put out a consistently good album (Green). On this album we can see how the subject matter of his songs has changed, as it should. He no longer knows what it is like to be living in the projects in the current day. He is a wealthy artist, who lives in a big house and is a father. His subject matter has transfered into what he deals with now, as shown -
"Life is Good" (Cont)
his track "Daughters", on which he talks about what it is like to watch his baby girl grow up, and the struggles that he has encountered with parenthood. The album artwork is a picture of him holding his ex-wifes dress. He looks sad, but he realizes even if his marriage failed, his life is still better than it had been 20 years prior -
"Time is Illmatic"
20 years after his debut album, Nas releases a documentary about Nas' childhood upbringing as well as the obstacles that he had to overcome to get signed and make it big ("About Time is Illmatic") Nas goes back to the projects that he grew up in while he reminisces over his past ("NAS: TIME IS ILLMATIC- Official Trialer (Tribeca Film). This shows how far he has come over the past 20 years. The trailer for the documentary can be found here.
