Why has Nas never made it properly in mainstream ?

[Budda]

It always made me laugh how If I Ruled The World was considered a sell out song, the same audience would love a Nas Lauryn Hill collabo today.

 

[Big Boss]

8 Platinum albums

3 Gold Albums

5 Number 1 Debuting albums

13 Grammy Nominations

1 Emmy Award

A fellowship in his name from Harvard

A Documentary that premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival and currently sits at 100% on Rotten Tomatoes


How much more mainstream does it get?

 

[MartyMcFly]

this thread is funny because back in the day with if I ruled the world, hate me now, streets dreams etc. in the late 90s everybody saw nas as a mainstream sellout after illmatic.

he's had other hits too, made you look, I can, even one mic and got urself a gun charted.

ya'll kids running around here need to learn

just because you started listening to rap three years ago and never heard nas on the radio don't mean he was never mainstream

 

[melraH]

people usually dont call out the real instances of jay biting rappers tho. and its crazy, because theres plenty of options to choose from. i dont know why people keep trying to force the biggie issue.

shyt is almost verbatim and he also jumped on the ruff ryders/dmx bandwagon



shyt just listen to this

 

[Rapmastermind]

Whoever said, "Just cause you started listening to rap 3 years ago doesn't mean NaS isn't mainstream". Is right, I will dap you when I find the post. The issues is NaS in the last 10 years hasn't been really mainstream, he's completely ran away from it. Sure on his album he will have a mainstream track or two, "Make the world Go Round", "Summer on Smash" these are Nas's attempts at the mainstream. But him as an artist has moved further and further away from the mainstream. He even said on "Testify":

"F*ck ya'll little hoe b!tches, I don't need y'all I'll go Gold wit it"

But as I said, NaS from about 95-2002 God's Son era was pretty Mainstream, meaning he was known in the public and getting radio spins. I mean by "NaStradamus" even Diehard NaS fans were feeling he was long gone from the streets. NaS made a calculated decision after "ILLmatic" and Steve Stoute helped him get to that decision. Was he going to be a Street/Underground rapper or could he think Bigger and go beyond. NaS even said this when discussing "Ready To Die" and how it blew and changed his state of mind:

 

[Lefty Gunz]

i dont think he wants it

Where you listening to Nas, circa 96-99?

 

[the cac mamba]

Where you listening to Nas, circa 96-99?

nah not at all, first cd i bought was stillmatic

i hear that, obv dude was shootin for it at one point. so i guess he gave up

 

[Yoda]

this thread is funny because back in the day with if I ruled the world, hate me now, streets dreams etc. in the late 90s everybody saw nas as a mainstream sellout after illmatic.

he's had other hits too, made you look, I can, even one mic and got urself a gun charted.

ya'll kids running around here need to learn

just because you started listening to rap three years ago and never heard nas on the radio don't mean he was never mainstream

 

[intilectual recipricol]

he's not a good rapper really

 

[Da_Eggman]

The best music isn't mean stream when will you dudes understand that

 

[Blackout]

During that time the conscious crowd wasn't checking for Nas either. Before warring with Hov made him the default anti-commercial rapper hero he was considered a sell out.

Nas fit in with the many conscious problack rappers back then actually when you consider that he was once considered a Rakim copy.

 

[intilectual recipricol]

lmao @ these c00ns... so all of a sudden cuz naS might have some platinum plaques he's a mainstream success? What about if his debut went .37x plywood for 7 years? Then that means that album was a worthless flop? nikkaz be arguin outta both sides of they moufs

 

[iliketurtles]

Chief keef > Nos at least he has hits and bangers

 

[DontEemTry]

He tried to, but his fans will never acknowledge that he tried and failed at it and fell back.

You can't be good at everything though. He has a lane.

 

[BiggWebb79]

He didn't dumb down his lyrics to double his dollar or had the machine(bad boy,interscope,def jam til later) behind him mostly; not to mention his fans tried to keep Nas in a box.
He also had songs that could've or would've been certified mainstream hits, but he didn't put them out.