off of wikipedia in the artistry section
Nas has been praised for his ability to create a "devastating match between lyrics and production" by journalist
Peter Shapiro, as well as creating a "potent evocation of life on the street", and he has even been compared to
Rakim for his lyrical technique. In his book
Book of Rhymes: The Poetics of Hip Hop (2009), writer Adam Bradley states, "Nas is perhaps contemporary rap's greatest innovator in storytelling. His catalog includes songs narrated before birth ('Fetus') and after death ('Amongst Kings'), biographies ('UBR [Unauthorized Biography of Rakim]') and autobiographies ('Doo Rags'), allegorical tales ('Money Is My bytch') and epistolary ones ('One Love'), he's rapped in the voice of a woman ('Sekou Story') and even of a gun ('I Gave You Power')."
Robert Christgau writes that "Nas has been transfiguring
gangsta rap since
Illmatic".
Kool Moe Dee notes that Nas has an "off-beat conversational flow" in his book
There's a God on the Mic – he says: "before Nas, every
MC focused on rhyming with a cadence that ultimately put the words that rhymed on beat with the
snare drum. Nas created a style of
rapping that was more conversational than ever before".
O.C. of
D.I.T.C. comments in the book
How to Rap: "Nas did the song backwards ['Rewind']... that was a brilliant idea". Also in
How to Rap,
2Mex of
The Visionaries describes Nas's flow as "effervescent",
Rah Digga says Nas's lyrics have "intricacy",
Bootie Brown of The Pharcyde explains that Nas does not always have to make words rhyme as he is "charismatic", and Nas is also described as having a "densely packed" flow, with
compound rhymes that "run over from one beat into the next or even into another bar".