Prose & Flows: 25 Years of Nas’ Best Lyrics - DJBooth Article
Ahead of the “Nas Album Done” video, we look back at some of Nas’ best - often overlooked - prose and flows from the past two-and-a-half decades.
1991
Song: “Live At The Barbeque”
Album: Breaking Atoms
Artist: Main Source
Producer: K-Cut, Sir Scratch, Large Professor
Verbal assassin / my architect pleases / when I was twelve / I went to hell for snuffing Jesus / Nasty Nas is a rebel to America / police murderer / I'm causing hysteria / my troops roll up with a strange force / I was trapped in a cage / and let out by the Main Source
Simply one of the very best debuts and guest verses of all-time, Nas went on to sample his breakthrough guest appearance for “The Genesis,” the opening track from his classic debut Illmatic in 1994.
1992
Song: “Back To The Grill”
Album: Return of the Product
Artist: MC Serch
Producer: T-Ray
Finesser / keep a Tec-9 in my dresser / lyrical professor / keep you under pressure / mind like a computer / the inserter / paragraphs of murder / the nightclub flirter / this is Nas, kid / you know how it runs / I'm waving automatic guns at nuns
Nas teamed up with future business partner Michael “MC Serch” Berrin for another classic guest verse - this time produced by Todd “T-Ray” Ray.
“The original version had maybe eight rappers on it. I told ‘em, ‘Whoever does the best is gonna get on the record.’ So we did a whole version with Akinyele and everybody on it, and Nas just destroyed it! So Nas, in a sense, won the position and he got on the record. It was literally a recording battle.” - T-Ray
1993
Song: n/a
Album: n/a
Artist: n/a
Producer: n/a
With no known material from 1993, Nas was hard at work crafting his April 1994 magnum opus Illmatic.
1994
Song: “One Love”
Album: Illmatic
Artist: Nas
Producer: Q-Tip
So I comes back home / nobody's out but Shorty Doo-Wop / Rolling two phillies together / in the Bridge we call 'em oo-wops / He said, “Nas, nikkas caught me busting off the roof / So I wear a bulletproof and pack a black tre-deuce” / He inhaled so deep / shut his eyes like he was sleep / Started coughing / one eye peeked to watch me speak / I sat back like The Mack / my army suit was black / We was chilling on these benches / Where he pumped his loose cracks
Produced by contemporary legend Kamaal Ibn John “Q-Tip” Fareed, the above-quoted verse served as inspiration for the infamous coming-of-age bonding scene in the 1998 film Belly starring Nas.
“Q-Tip used to come and hang out with me in my projects from time to time. I remember him coming out there and hanging out, and I remember him letting me hang out at his session when he was working on Midnight Marauders. I thought he was just the most incredible, so to have him producing my album, for him to even do the chorus for me is a blessing.” - Nas
1995
Song: “Verbal Intercourse”
Album: Only Built 4 Cuban Linx...
Artist: Raekwon
Producer: RZA
Through the lights, camera and action / glamour glitters and gold / I unfold the scroll / plant seeds to stampede the globe / When I'm deceased / by then the beast arise like yeast / To conquer peace / leaving savages to roam in the streets
The origination of the Nas Escobar moniker, Nas dropped another classic guest verse noted for being labeled the #3 verse of all-time by The Source Magazine in 1998.
“He came to the Island, boom, we set up, we was at RZA’s crib. Next thing you know, he just up in there vibin’, RZA’s on his RZA shyt: hair out, dirty Timberlands on, eating noodles and all that, ordering mad pizza. Now we hear the ‘Verbal Intercourse’ beat, and I’m like, ‘This the track I want you on.’ He was with it, but he didn’t know what rhyme to spit. So I’m like, I’ma play the A&R role right now. ‘Go in the booth, do what you want to do.’ He was just throwing different occasional rhymes and all of that. The next thing you know, I heard the ‘Through the lights, camera and action’ and I was automatically like, ‘Stop! Do that one right there!’” - Raekwon
1996
Song: “Take It In Blood”
Album: It Was Written
Artist: Nas
Producer: Top General Sounds, Lo Ground, Live Squad
Earth, Wind and Fire / singing reasons why I'm / up early / trustworthy is a .9 that bust early / sunshine on my grill / I spill Remy on imaginary graves / put my hat on my waves / Latter-day Saints / say religious praise / I dolo / challenge any team or solo / you must be bugging out / new to my shyt / home on a furlough
As a victim of his own classic debut, It Was Written is often overlooked as a classic in it’s own right - containing cinematic production matched with a wider world view born from the success of Illmatic. The wordplay in this particular scheme was a preview of Nas’ expected greatness.
1997
Song: “Calm Down”
Album: Calm Down / Capone Bone
Artist: Capone-n-Noreaga
Producer: Ez Elpee
Everybody has their ups and downs / but this one kid had stayed rich / while we slang the grave shifts / “I’m tired of it!" / said a cat whose name I'ma leave anonymous / ‘cause he might take it as some kind of diss / anyway / he saw him driving up inside the projects / tried to stick him / but he got bodied in the process / the victor had become the victim / thought he had a smooth nikka caught / but a smooth nikka licked him
One of several collaborations with fellow Queens, New York legends Kiam Akasi “Capone” Holley, Victor “Noreaga” Santiago, Jr. and Percy “Tragedy Khadafi” Chapman IV. Released the same year as The Firm The Album, “Calm Down” never gained the shine it deserved due to Nas associate Eric “E Money Bags” Smith being left off the original incarnation of the song.
“He come in the room. It’s mad nikkas in the room. He like ‘Yo, what up?’ So I was like ‘Yo, what up?’ He said ‘Why you took me off the record?’… I’m like ‘Yo son, your verse is wack.’ Peep this though. Peace be upon him, real nikka though. He said ‘No doubt.’ And kept it moving.” - Tragedy Khadafi
Smith dropped his own solo debut In E-Money Bags We Trust in 1999, with features from Noreaga and Nas before being murdered in 2001, in an apparent revenge slaying ordered by Kenneth “Supreme” McGriff.
1998
Song: “Grand Finale”
Album: Belly OST
Artist: Various
Producer: Lil Rob, Irv Gotti
Thug faces / fugitives running from court cases / slugs shooting past for the love of drug paper / Queens cap peelers / soldiers / drug dealers / and God'll throw a beam of lightning down ‘cause he feel us / may the next one strike me down if I'm not the realest
Joined by Jeffrey “Ja Rule” Atkins, the three male leads from the film Belly - Nas, Earl “DMX” Simmons and Clifford “Method Man” Smith - created the “Grand Finale” track with another standout flow from Nas.
1999
Song: “It’s Mine”
Album: Murda Muzik
Artist: Mobb Deep
Producer: Havoc
shyt is better than a novel / autobiographic / spit it on tracks / it becomes classic / start some / make my heart pump / spark one / I’m God’s son / NAS-tradamus / last one to blast one when the NARC's come / ‘know how to leave anything in thirty seconds’ / when you feel the ‘Heat’ coming / and flee with the murder weapon
Certain artists consistently brought the best out of Nas (AZ, Large Professor, DJ Premier), including Queensbridge duo Mobb Deep, who featured the emcee on their second release The Infamous… before bringing him back for Murda Muzik, their fourth full-length release. The duo went on to release a straight-to-DVD film under the Murda Muzik moniker, which included Nas in a feature role.
2000
Song: “Let My nikkas Live”
Album: The W
Artist: Wu-Tang Clan
Producer: RZA
I hear murder plans / from dopefiends with elephant hands / snots in they nostril / the blocks is hostile / there's no pots to piss in / Glocks is spittin’ / rocks cooking / underground bodies stiffen / cops look at bird shyt / drop on the window pane / the oxygen is cocaine / it drove lots of men to die with no name
After sharing several tracks with various Wu members, Nas and the Clan finally linked up for an official posse cut, albeit on Wu’s feature-heavy, unbalanced November 2000 album. Despite the lackluster album as a whole, Nas brings a terrific flow heavily-filled with his trademark raw imagery.
2001
Song: “You’re Da Man”
Album: Stillmatic
Artist: Nas
Producer: Large Professor
Your arms too short to box with God / I don't kill soloists / only kill squads / fame went to they head / so now it's, "fukk Nas" / yesterday you begged for a deal / today you tough guys / I seen it coming / soon as I popped my first bottle / I spotted my enemies / tryna do what I do / came in with my style / so I fathered you / I kept changing on the world since "Barbeque"
This is hands-down one of my top five favorite Nas songs of all-time, featuring beautiful imagery and a vulnerable insight into an artist previously thought of as “lost.” Nas released Stillmatic in December 2001, and returned to critical acclaim after gaining creative inspiration off his infamous beef with Jay-Z.
2002
Song: “Heaven”
Album: God’s Son
Artist: Nas
Producer: Saukrates, Agile
I bet you there's a Heaven for an atheist / it’s hard taking this racist planet / where they take a younger brother in a hand-cuff / even if he innocent / “******, get on the car! Put your motherfukking hands up!" / thinking I'ma lose it / my mom's in chemo / three times a week, yo / keep trying, but people / it's hard / and God, your young soldier's not sober / but needs you / this world's my home / but world, I will leave you
A slept-on Nas classic, the MC attacks the sparse production with vigor, motivated by the then-recent passing of his mother Fannie Ann Jones, police brutality, spirituality and insecurity while flowing with precision.
I would've picked some other songs, but that just shows he's got so many dope verses throughout the years.