Nas
b. Nasir Jones, c.1974, Long Island, New York, USA. From the tough Queensbridge housing projects which brought the world Marley Marl, MC Shan and Intelligent Hoodlum, Nas is a highly skilled hip hop artist whose music is crafted with a degree of subtlety and forethought often absent from the genre. He was heavily influenced by his jazz-playing father, and started rapping at the age of nine, graduating to a crew entitled the Devastatin' Seven in the mid-80s. He met Main Source producer Large Professor in 1989, in the course of recording his first demo tape. The producer introduced him to the group itself, and he would see his debut on Main Source's 1990 album BREAKING ATOMS, guesting on the cut Live At The BBQ, where he was part of a skilled chorus line, alongside Large Professor and Akinyele. However, though he was widely applauded for his contribution he failed to build on the impact, drifting through life and becoming disillusioned by the death of his best friend Will, and the shooting of his brother. He may well have stayed on the outside of the hip hop game had not MC Serch (Nas had guested on his Back To The Grill) searched him out, to provide a solo track for the Zebra Head film. Half Time, again recorded with the Large Professor, was the result. A debut album followed, with contributions from the cream of New York's producers: Premier (Gang Starr), Pete Rock and Q-Tip (A Tribe Called Quest). A hefty unit which Columbia were happy to pay the bill for, judging Nas to be their priority rap act for 1994. Nas, who had by now dropped his Nasty prefix, honed a rapping style that was at once flamboyant, but with a lyrical armoury that far surpassed the expected humdrum ‘bitches and ho's’ routines. Serch, now A&R head of Wild Pitch, once declared Nas: ‘Pound for pound, note for note, word for word, the best MC I ever heard in my life’. There was now evidence to suggest he may have been correct.