Official Nas Thread

[spliz]

Are we forgetting the man SOLD OUT Madison Square Garden just 2 years ago with a Kings Disease themed show?

Nas has been doing both the Illmatic shows and just regular Nas Centric shows for the past decade. He’s proven his catalogue is string enough for him to do both.

Matter of fact he’s probably the ONLY rapper besides Jay-Z who could do that. Juggle highlighting his classic debut album and do concerts that focus on his discography.

Bro I’m not saying he doesn’t perform anything else. I just said I’m tired of the Illmatic shyt. HE EVEN said he’s tired of Illmatic. It’s at the point when I hear someone say they a Nas fan and they mention Illmatic I almost roll my eyes. Especially me being a person who had Illmatic on cassette when it dropped and me knowing that even by 01 there was alotta Nas fans who never even heard the shyt. shyt just feels disingenuous.

 

[L $ C]

ima say something that yall gonna get mad at me for


im not totally sure I want a nas premo album as much as id like to see nas maybe just get a few dope producers and features ? is that fair to say? not sure in 2025

 

[L $ C]

The lady who works for Nas said a few years ago on Spaces that Nas was turning down Illmatic performances and the venues would just keep increasing the fee until it was too much to turn down.

He also went through a bunch of his other hits so it wasn’t “just” Illmatic. He did Rare and Spicy in addition to cuts from It Was Written (The Message/Street Dreams/If I Ruled The World) Nastradamus (You Owe Me) Stillmatic (Got Yourself A Gun/One Mic) Gods Son (Made You Look/I Can) and Life Is Good (He ran Da Don back THREE times)

He did Hot Boyz and Oochie Wally too

outside of da don that plus illmatic is pretty much the standard set list, which I get. i just idk its too much focus always on illmatic. but awesome concert bro glad u enjoyed

 

[L $ C]

Bro I’m not saying he doesn’t perform anything else. I just said I’m tired of the Illmatic shyt. HE EVEN said he’s tired of Illmatic. It’s at the point when I hear someone say they a Nas fan and they mention Illmatic I almost roll my eyes. Especially me being a person who had Illmatic on cassette when it dropped and me knowing that even by 01 there was alotta Nas fans who never even heard the shyt. shyt just feels disingenuous.

its got to a point I almost think its hurting his legacy in spots. bros got 15 albums. 10 of which are anywhere from really good to classic

 

[Pop123]

He understands it now,

 

[kes929]

I posted this on Twitter and the amount of love this one post got is crazy. People really love the Nas and Hit Boy run. It’s really a shame how the mainstream hip hop media didn’t get behind Nas dropping this heat. The love it got is purely people like us keeping it going.

https://x.com/ksmith929/status/1941699415476949480?s=46&t=7o7q1Xty4g_SB2GkWNcc7A

 

[semicko82]

ima say something that yall gonna get mad at me for


im not totally sure I want a nas premo album as much as id like to see nas maybe just get a few dope producers and features ? is that fair to say? not sure in 2025

I agree Premo hasn't had dope production in almost 20 years.

Nas should have Q-Tip produce his next album.

 

[Piff Perkins]

It hurts me to say but I feel the same way bruh. Lol.

I get the sentiment but when you have one of those albums you never stop performing them to some degree. My uncle saw Marvin Gaye in the early 1980s and the setlist included all of What’s Going On (plus other hits). That was during the Sexual Healing era. U2 still does The Joshua Tree, Roger Waters was doing The Wall live until 2013.

Plus it’s a short album so Nas can quickly get to other hits and deep cuts.

 

[spliz]

I get the sentiment but when you have one of those albums you never stop performing them to some degree. My uncle saw Marvin Gaye in the early 1980s and the setlist included all of What’s Going On (plus other hits). That was during the Sexual Healing era. U2 still does The Joshua Tree, Roger Waters was doing The Wall live until 2013.

Plus it’s a short album so Nas can quickly get to other hits and deep cuts.

I’m just tired of it bruh. nikka got a 30 year career and barely celebrates his other shyt. I feel IWW deserves just as much celebration as Illmatic being that it literally changed his entire career trajectory.

 

[JustCKing]

The Internet wins again:

 

[T.he I.nformant]

Just got back from the Nas show in Atlanta. I took my younger brother, his first Nas concert and my 8th.

Ilmatic with the symphony was amazing but I have ONE issue and its been an issue i’ve had for a minute when he does the Illmatic shows and thats he ALWAYS skips over One Time For Your Mind! He skipped over it when I saw him in 2014 at the One Music Fest and he skipped it tonight. The One Time For Your Mind slander MUST end!

This was the most “talkative” Nas i’ve ever seen live. He was joking with the crowd, telling stories about certain songs, and even went into a “Ghetto Dictionary” to explain the meanings of certain slang that was used in the 90’s right before he did One Love. shyt was hilarious hearing Nas explain what “Phat” and “Oh-Wops” meant lol

He talked about how Ain’t Hard To Tell was meant to be the “commercial” single for Illmatic but then “SWV came and STOMPED my shyt!” Lol

After the Illmatic portion he went into his hits throughout his career. I was pleasantly surprised that he performed Rare and Spicy. I was expecting him to do Thun or 30 afterwards but he didn’t, he also didn’t perform any Magic series songs. Also this was the first Nas concert i’ve ever been to that he didn’t perform Nas is Like or Hate Me Now. With the whole Diddy debacle I get not doing Hate Me Now but I was little surprised at no Nas is Like, especially with the symphony backing him. He DID perform Oochie Wally and You Owe Me and had EVERY female in the joint in the palm of his hands. One lady behind me was screaming for Nas to let her lick his mole! shyt was wild


I would say of all the times i’ve seen him live this is my second favorite after 2014’s One Music fest. Illmatic REALLY translates well to an orchestral version and seeing Nas be funny and crack jokes and have fun was awesome.

My brother enjoyed it. He was disappointed that Nas didn’t perform Hip Hop Is Dead as thats his favorite Nas song but I told him afterward that Nas rarely performs any songs from the HHID/Untitled era (A shame really) there was also a sizable amount of white people in the audience that I hadn’t really noticed before at any other Nas solo show i’d been to. It was interesting to see what had to be a 45 year old white woman singing the hook to If I Ruled The World at the top of her lungs lol.

Amen. I was shocked when I saw him perform it for the first time at Red Rocks. Because he NEVER does that.

 

[Ziggiy]

Bro I’m not saying he doesn’t perform anything else. I just said I’m tired of the Illmatic shyt. HE EVEN said he’s tired of Illmatic. It’s at the point when I hear someone say they a Nas fan and they mention Illmatic I almost roll my eyes. Especially me being a person who had Illmatic on cassette when it dropped and me knowing that even by 01 there was alotta Nas fans who never even heard the shyt. shyt just feels disingenuous.

But what i’m saying is Nas gets the best of both worlds, which is a testament to both his catalogue and the strategy of both he and his team. He can headline the Garden with a concert centered around his recent albums AND he can tour a series of shows dedicated to his classic debut album. He’s literally getting money THROWN at him to do those concerts to the point it would be crazy to turn it down, then he goes back to winning Grammys and setting records with his new album. I don’t think the Illmatic stuff impacts his legacy nearly as much right now as it did 15 years ago. His new albums don’t get endlessly compared to Illmatic, his moves with Mass Appeal, Queens-bridge Venture and the Casino don’t get raked over the coals by backpack nerds, albums like It Was Written are getting their just due by publications and media who now call it a classic. I just don’t think its THAT serious any longer.

 

[Ziggiy]

I posted this on Twitter and the amount of love this one post got is crazy. People really love the Nas and Hit Boy run. It’s really a shame how the mainstream hip hop media didn’t get behind Nas dropping this heat. The love it got is purely people like us keeping it going.

https://x.com/ksmith929/status/1941699415476949480?s=46&t=7o7q1Xty4g_SB2GkWNcc7A

Crazy thing is mainstream media got behind the albums more than “Hip Hop” media did. Rolling Stone went from trashing KD1 to saying that Nas was cementing his GOAT claim by the time Magic 2 dropped. Stephen A Smith was ranking the albums on First Take, ESPN was bookending commercials with Spicy, Rare, and 30. Billboard inducted him into their music Hall of Fame. He won a Grammy and the next year performed at the Grammys. He was on the cover of GQ.

 

[kes929]

I’m just tired of it bruh. nikka got a 30 year career and barely celebrates his other shyt. I feel IWW deserves just as much celebration as Illmatic being that it literally changed his entire career trajectory.

Crazy thing is mainstream media got behind the albums more than “Hip Hop” media did. Rolling Stone went from trashing KD1 to saying that Nas was cementing his GOAT claim by the time Magic 2 dropped. Stephen A Smith was ranking the albums on First Take, ESPN was bookending commercials with Spicy, Rare, and 30. Billboard inducted him into their music Hall of Fame. He won a Grammy and the next year performed at the Grammys. He was on the cover of GQ.

You are right. I actually mean mainstream hip hop media. Mainstream media actually did a pretty good job.

 

[HNIC973]

Crazy thing is mainstream media got behind the albums more than “Hip Hop” media did. Rolling Stone went from trashing KD1 to saying that Nas was cementing his GOAT claim by the time Magic 2 dropped. Stephen A Smith was ranking the albums on First Take, ESPN was bookending commercials with Spicy, Rare, and 30. Billboard inducted him into their music Hall of Fame. He won a Grammy and the next year performed at the Grammys. He was on the cover of GQ.

He should've won that year to