Dawg, AZ can say anything. Fact is AZ could have said shyt if he wanted and he didnt. Nas is the nygga who gave him light to shine.
AZ WATCHED.. He did nothing.
Hip-Hop Theory: I think Nas always wanted AZ to stay in his shadow
- Thread starter Mr Hate Coffee
- Start date
Dawg, AZ can say anything. Fact is AZ could have said shyt if he wanted and he didnt. Nas is the nygga who gave him light to shine.
AZ WATCHED.. He did nothing.
JayBaldacci
All Star
Before anybody from QB at that...
AnonymityX1000
Veteran
Hmm. . . seems like he would be the type to tell AZ to fall back. He was very strategic when beefing with the ROC. I doubt he would want dude just saying shyt out of turn.
Take It In Blood
Banned
IMO AZ did everything right
he had the talent and skill
he had the dope albums
he had the commercial appeal
The only reason to explain why he didn't blow up is that sometimes you can work hard, do the right thing but that doesn't mean everything will work out and the ball will fall in your court.
The universe is wack like that sometimes, some ppl live to be 90, while others die crossing the street at 12 years old
Vincent Van Gogh's paintings sell for 80 million dollars in 2018, yet in his lifetime he only sold one painting, had no friends, was broke and ended up committing suicide.
Thus is existence, nothing makes sense and everything is randomness and chaos
Ones success or lack of isn't always their own doings. There are other factors at play.
he had the talent and skill
he had the dope albums
he had the commercial appeal
The only reason to explain why he didn't blow up is that sometimes you can work hard, do the right thing but that doesn't mean everything will work out and the ball will fall in your court.
The universe is wack like that sometimes, some ppl live to be 90, while others die crossing the street at 12 years old
Vincent Van Gogh's paintings sell for 80 million dollars in 2018, yet in his lifetime he only sold one painting, had no friends, was broke and ended up committing suicide.
Thus is existence, nothing makes sense and everything is randomness and chaos
Ones success or lack of isn't always their own doings. There are other factors at play.
Im very aware of him being cool with Jay.
Thats my point. He didnt wanna go against a nygga who did nothing for him (Jay Z) and ride with a nygga who did something for him (Nas)
i can dig that.Dawg, AZ didnt have to say anything to Jay
But, you had Sigel, Freeway, Chris and Neef, Bleek, Peedi, Oschino.. etc
at least pick off one of them nyggas.
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@ this whole "theory" resting on the AZ/Nas collab being delayed.Do you know how many times Nas made me wait for a project that never happened? I still remember adding Nas "Slave to the Page: Book of Rhymes" to my amazon wish list back in like 2005, which was supposed to pretty much be what Decoded ended up being for Jay.
I just googled it and it supposedly has a release day of June 2019
Slave to a Page : The Book of Rhymes by Nasir Jones (Hardcover): Booksamillion.com: Books
Even if that's true (which I doubt) it would still mean he had that book on the shelf for 15 years
Still waiting for Lost Tapes 2 and we going on 2 years since Nas spoke "the album done nikkas wait and see"
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AnonymityX1000
Veteran
Yeah I guess. He probably could have scored a couple of points for his own career. lol
AZ didn't get launched into stardom after 'Sugar Hill' cause you could score a hit, but you still gotta score another one to actually become a legit star and that didn't happen. 'Gimme Yours' and 'Doe or Die' as the follow-up singles didn't hit at all, so that was it or the Doe Or Die album. Then, I remember when 'Hey AZ' came out, it was pretty poorly received. It was like, aiiiight, but a very obvious reach to fit what everyone else was doing at the time and it didn't hit. So even tho' that Firm album kept him in the light for a minute, he wasn't delivering the records to keep him there. He was trying, but for whatever reason, people just didn't go for it.
AnonymityX1000
Veteran
Gimmie Yours was my shyt.
There is a little bit of truth to this...but you can't blame Nas for that being that The Firm was looked at as a failure, so it's understandable why he would want to rebuild with his solo material. AZ wanted to do a video for How Ya Livin but Nas kaboshed it.
At the end of the day I love AZ, he's a great rapper and he's definitely outshined Nas on tracks befo (not on Life's a bytch tho, the real songs he got him on was Firm Fiasco and The Flyest), but let's keep it a buck. AZ will always be the Pippen to Nas' Jordan. Like I said A is great but Nas just has more range as an artist. That's just how it is.
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Devil Plisken…CMS
Veteran
Walk with me for a sec... and older heads please chime in (because I could be wrong... it's just a theory)
Illmatic came out in 1994. It was universally heralded as a classic and Nas was on his way. One of the standout tracks was "Life's a bytch", featuring Brooklyn rapper AZ. It could even be argued that AZ outshined Nas on this track.
While Illmatic was a critical success, it didn't really catch on mainstream. There's no record of any of the singles charting.
In 1995, AZ releases his debut album featuring the hit single "Sugar Hill". "Sugar Hill" topped at 25 on the Billboard Hot 100, higher than any Nas song at that point in his career.
Enter 1996. Nas drops "It Was Written" with his breakout single "If I Ruled the World" "If I Ruled the World" topped out at 53 on the Billboard Hot 100, while "Street Dreams" peaked at 22. [It must have been a timing situation because IIRTW is clearly the more popular song]
From that point on their careers go different directions, but they did collab on the failed Firm project and numerous songs in the future. For some reason, AZ is relegated to underground rapper status while Nas becomes a superstar.
Here's why I think Nas wanted AZ to stay in his shadow.
- Over the years, despite fans CLAMORING for the AZ/Nas collab project, it's never happened. This is largely due to Nas. He's the bigger star and dictates what happens. Nas has never really had a good excuse for the collab not dropping either.
- AZ blew up commercially before Nas, Nas probably felt some way about it. Especially after putting AZ on.
- Nas kept delaying the collabo album and now nobody wants that shyt.
Questions I have for NY/older cats:
Why didn't Sugar Hill launch AZ into superstardom? I remember hearing it all over the radio. It's about a good of a single one can ask for in their career.
Why wasn't AZ seen on Nas' level? He's got the lyrics, flow, and even has the look.
Has there ever been any public beef between the two? (i.e. Did Nas feel some type of way about AZ being in Jay-Z's "Dead Presidents" video.)
This is all just theory and an attempt to get some real hip-hop discussion going. Nas is my favorite rapper alive but I always wondered why AZ was underrated.
Your whole shyt is off tilt...What did AZ's lack of success have to do with Nas?
AZ was also making moves on his own that were really never capitalized on:
- his feature on D'angelo's "Lady" remix produced by Premo. This even had a video.
- the "Hey AZ" remix produced by Jermaine Dupri. I think this came out before "Money Ain't A Thang".
- he was featured on a Jon B. album too
Even being in The Firm, it would make sense that him and Dre would be open to collaborate more. Then again, he didn't do too much more work with L.E.S. either and they had a great track record together.
- his feature on D'angelo's "Lady" remix produced by Premo. This even had a video.
- the "Hey AZ" remix produced by Jermaine Dupri. I think this came out before "Money Ain't A Thang".
- he was featured on a Jon B. album too
Even being in The Firm, it would make sense that him and Dre would be open to collaborate more. Then again, he didn't do too much more work with L.E.S. either and they had a great track record together.