Why has Nas never made it properly in mainstream ?

[CashmereThoughts]

nas was always on the mainstream, even here in europe when hiphop was the thing.

Mainstream to me means the general public can appreciate your music. Drake is mainstream, Flo rida is mainstream. theres nothing mainstream about NaS or his music. After 2 decades active in the game hes had MAYBE 3 records that are well known by the general public.

- If i ruled the world
- i can ??

whats his biggest single? if i ruled the world peaked at 53 on the billboard chart. if memory serves me, that was a huge record for nas and the one that had the most rotation. and it peaked at 53. It was written went double platinum because people just caught on to nas after hearing if i ruled the world because after illmatic people were trying to give him the crown. but even listening to IWW its not mainstream music at all.

mainstream art*ts make hits, nas's career has never been about hits and he really doesnt even have any real hits when we talking about "“0 To 100" and "loyal " type hits. a song that performed well dont = a hit.

nas aint never been mainstream.

 

[Goat poster]

Are we forgeting that NAS was the first East Coast Rapper to Debut at #1 on the albums charts?

 

[NvrCMyNut]

The mental gymnastics being performed in this thread

 

[Diunx]

I would rather have quality work and constant classic songs from my favorite MC instead of dikkriding the newest trend and constantly releasing garbage after garbage just so some 18 year old nikka bump his shyt in his daddy's car.

 

[Ego Noir]

Why would you even want to be Jay Z status (superstar)

Id rather be respected in my craft and recognized for it by those actually into my art then be hounded by paparazzi and be mobbed whenever you walk out the door.

Nas wants for nothing financially life is good, and he gets the respect he needs.

Jay on the other hand is a superstar but its counterproductive. He is so successful he put himself in a prison where he cant even go to the store without bodyguards and having to fight off 150 people. Hes probably always busy, and continually fighting to earn more money when right now he has more than he can everspend in a lifetime. IMO its not the point of life probably why hes always complaining about the love in his music.



Read an article about nas daily life, breh wakes up at 10am. goes to the studio probably a meeting or two, spends time with his children, eats at a restaurant, and parties at night or goes on a date with a lady. Add to the fact he wears what he wants and drives what he wants lives where he wants and has no PR duties other than the mild attention and an autograph here or there. He lives the ideal life IMO

 

[mobbinfms]

yea was originally a bonus cut with silent murder

this was back when CD versions cost like 83746537465 dollars lol so CD versions always had an extra cut or 2 in order to justify that price since portable CD players were like $500 and didnt have anti skip lol had to walk with it like a table top in ya hand lol

Silent Murder was on the cassette version though. Not on the CD.
It boggles my mind that that song only went to # 53 on the billboard. I remember it being a huge single. Plus it had Lauryn Hill in the midst of Fugees mania.
So if that single didn't sell IWW - the album sold because of his reputation from Illmatic.

 

[Danie84]

OP must be a 90s baby

 

[Pinyapplesuckas]

nikkas acting like Nas is an underground artist

 

[vampire xtc]

Silent Murder was on the cassette version though. Not on the CD.
It boggles my mind that that song only went to # 53 on the billboard. I remember it being a huge single. Plus it had Lauryn Hill in the midst of Fugees mania.
So if that single didn't sell IWW - the album sold because of his reputation from Illmatic.

silent murder ended up being a bonus on the CD version of IWW at a point

let me see if i can find a pic of this...

AH i found one

had to switch it up since if i ruled the world which was intended on a CD only bonus initially literally HAD to be on the casette also lol


back then billboard didnt have high charting hip hop singles and hip hop albums had a slow burn to a million

IWW only did 268K opening week which was considered HUGE for a hip hop album at the time lol and ironically its one of nas highest first weeks ever

nas highest first week sales was for i am with 470K

 

[mobbinfms]

silent murder ended up being a bonus on the CD version of IWW at a point

let me see if i can find a pic of this...

AH i found one

had to switch it up since if i ruled the world which was intended on a CD only bonus initially literally HAD to be on the casette also lol


back then billboard didnt have high charting hip hop singles and hip hop albums had a slow burn to a million

IWW only did 268K opening week which was considered HUGE for a hip hop album at the time lol and ironically its one of nas highest first weeks ever

nas highest first week sales was for i am with 470K

Bolded is definitely generally true. I wouldn't have expected If I Ruled to be #1 or something like that - but I would have absolutely expected it to have cracked the top 40.
Props on the picture. That really does explain a lot and makes perfect sense. That must be why the CD and cassette had different tracklisting.

 

[MJ Freedom]

Aside from the fact that Nas HAS achieved incredible mainstream/commercial success, let's not ignore that Nas intentionally shied away from being bigger on a commercial level than he could have been... word to Steve Stoute.

 

[tybo]

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?

This is the definition of b!tch slapping a niqqa in a thread!!

 

[tybo]

*whispers "Hot Boyz" with Missy is in the Guiness Book of World Records*

 

[ISO]

Mainstream to me means the general public can appreciate your music. Drake is mainstream, Flo rida is mainstream. theres nothing mainstream about NaS or his music. After 2 decades active in the game hes had MAYBE 3 records that are well known by the general public.

- If i ruled the world
- i can ??

whats his biggest single? if i ruled the world peaked at 53 on the billboard chart. if memory serves me, that was a huge record for nas and the one that had the most rotation. and it peaked at 53. It was written went double platinum because people just caught on to nas after hearing if i ruled the world because after illmatic people were trying to give him the crown. but even listening to IWW its not mainstream music at all.

mainstream art*ts make hits, nas's career has never been about hits and he really doesnt even have any real hits when we talking about "“0 To 100" and "loyal " type hits. a song that performed well dont = a hit.

nas aint never been mainstream.

Nas has 8 Platinum albums yet he isn't mainstream? How is a Platinum selling rapper not mainstream?

 

[Kimo_bud]

he just never had the charisma no homo