Nas list his 20 most important// fav songs of his career; gives a break down.

[Jimmy ValenTime]

Nas: My Life in 20 Songs Pictures | Rolling Stone


intro ...

"It's like I gave myself a 40th birthday present 20 years ago."

Nas has been in a reflective mood of late, performing an extended victory lap to commemorate the 20th anniversary of his landmark debut album Illmatic. The Queens rapper is hardly one to exploit nostalgia—2012's candid, stunning Life Is Good mainly eschewed reminiscence for a snapshot of the rapper's life as he neared 40—but with most MCs' shelf lives measured in months, two decades is a feat worth celebrating.

"It gives me a reference piece to look at myself and for me to analyze my life and what I've come from; my accomplishments; my dreams," Nas tells Rolling Stone about his acclaimed debut. Today, the rapper releases Illmatic XX,featuring a remastered version of the album alongside an extra disc of rarities, demos, remixes and live performances. A tour is in the works where he'll perform the album front-to-back, and the upcoming feature-length documentary Time Is Illmatic, detailing the album's history and legacy, will open the Tribeca Film Festival. The rapper is also working on the pilot for Street Dreams, his upcoming autobiographical drama for Xbox.

Nas is also channeling this reflective period for a planned new album, which he's started recording and hopes to release by the end of the year. "I have not been inspired to record until riding this Illmatic parade," he says. "I didn’t know that this would inspire me, but this time has made me reflect and made me aware of where I am today. I think I could have put together a good new album without this 20-year anniversary, but I don’t think it would have nowhere near the depth that I think it’s going to have now."

But before any new material is heard, Nas walked us through his thought process and state of mind behind 20 of his most introspective songs. Some are classics. Some never got their due. But all show a "graphic classic song composer" laying bare insecurities, victories, fears and triumphs.



thats my goat .....


Here the list ...

1. live at the barbeque
2. halftime
3. "Life's a bytch"
4. world is yours
5. I gave you power
6. nas is coming ...
7. hate me now
8. Nastradamus"
9. "Got Ur Self A...
10. 2nd Childhood
11. Poppa Was a Playa
12. "Last Real N---a Alive"
13. Dance"
14. thief's theme
15. Bridging the Gap
16. Hip Hop Is Dead
17. Who Killed It
18. Not Going Back
19. Untitled
20. No Introduction"

 

[boskey]

The Queens rapper is hardly one to exploit nostalgia

 

[Jimmy ValenTime]

1. live at the barbeque
2. halftime
3. "Life's a bytch"
4. world is yours
5. I gave you power
6. nas is coming ...
7. hate me now
8. Nastradamus"
9. "Got Ur Self A...
10. 2nd Childhood
11. Poppa Was a Playa
12. "Last Real N---a Alive"
13. Dance"
14. thiefs theme
15. Bridging the Gap
16. Hip Hop Is Dead
17. Who Killed It
18. Not Going Back
19. Untitled
20. No Introduction"

i lowkey hate this double post thing ... i am wait and post all the parts of the article as people respond ...

 

[Jimmy ValenTime]

[DOUBLEPOST=1397662327][/DOUBLEPOST]"Live at the Barbeque"
Main Source's Breaking Atoms (1991)

I specifically meant for that verse to spark my whole existence in rap music, so I approached it that way and I felt like, "This is it. You only get one chance to make a first impression, so I went for it." I had the feeling in my head, so I wrote it right there on the spot. I think it was in [Queens recording studio] Power Play. It was pretty quick.

I still got rejected by a lot of record labels after that. But they should have [rejected me]. This was toward the end of probably the best rap music has ever been, so you couldn’t just walk and get on like that. For me, [getting signed then] may have been a year too early, but if it worked out right, it would have been really great for them as well. It was a very serious business and a very serious thing back then. But my three dream labels at the time were Cold Chillin', Def Jam and Columbia.

 

[Jimmy ValenTime]

I think at on point nas just started picking songs he really liked and not what was big or impactful

"Halftime"
Illmatic (1994)

That was the first song I recorded for Illmatic once we started, so "Halftime" was a perfect song for me to let go to a soundtrack. [The song was originally recorded for the Zebrahead soundtrack in 1992.] The idea behind it was that it was like intermission for rap music because something new is being introduced. There’s a performance happening in "Halftime" that has nothing to do with the game; it’s music that has nothing to do with the game. I knew I was onto something and I knew it would go over well. You just know. But of course, you don’t know how far you will go over well or how many people will receive you the way you’d like them to.

 

[Danie84]

Nas put Nastradamus in his top 20 songs...the GOAT has a wicked sense of humor

...let me attempt my Nas top 20 songs:

1.It Ain't Hard To Tell
2.The World Is Yours
3.I Gave You Power
4.The Message
5.Take It In Blood
6.Small World
7.We Will Survive
8.Nas Is Like
9.Undying Love
10.Project Windows
11.Ur Da Man
12.One Mic
13.Poison
14.Ether
15.No IDeas Original
16.Drunk By Myself
17.Heaven
18.Thief's Theme
19.N.I.G.G.E.R
20.Stay

...and so many more

 

[Jimmy ValenTime]

lifes a bi.tch

You got to credit [guest rapper] AZ with that, you know? Each record [on Illmatic] was an extension of the last record. That just went off. "Life’s a bytch" summed up my expression and my message of who I was at the time. The overarching message was that there’s more to life than what most people may think. In the beginning, I say, "Clothes, bankrolls and hoes" and it’s gotta be more to life than that. I wrote, "I woke up early on my born day/I’m 20/It's a blessing" and that feeling of being alive was strong. I had already felt like I’d been through a lot and I was just happy to be alive.[

 

[Jimmy ValenTime]

Nas put Nastradamus in his top 20 songs...the GOAT has a wicked sense of humor

...let me attempt my Nas top 20 songs:

1.It Ain't Hard To Tell
2.The World Is Yours
3.I Gave You Power
4.The Message
5.Take It In Blood
6.Small World
7.We Will Survive
8.Nas Is Like
9.Undying Love
10.Project Windows
11.Ur Da Man
12.One Mic
13.Poison
14.Ether
15.No IDeas Original
16.Drunk By Myself
17.Heaven
18.Thief's Theme
19.N.I.G.G.E.R
20.Stay

...and so many more

i like a lot of songs on nastradamus think the single is aight but he listed who killed it +


that and smokin are some his worst songs...

 

[Jimmy ValenTime]

The World Is Yours"
Illmatic (1994)

That whole song was inspired by Scarface. There's a scene where [Tony Montana] took his queen and took over in the movie. He goes out on the balcony for some air, looks up out the sky and says, "It’s time." At this point in time, he sees a blimp with the message "The world is yours" right there. That’s how real life is, you know? You’ll see a sign or some symbolism of what you’re going through; things that happen that tell you you’re at the right place at the right time. It was scenes and symbols like this that I grew up on that really made a difference in my head.




one of my fav songs ever ...

 

[Jimmy ValenTime]

"I Gave You Power"
It Was Written (1996)

That was one of the fastest songs I wrote to get started, but I don’t think I finished it all in one day. I wanted to just draw from nowhere and just go in. You think of street experiences and you write about it; you don’t even think. I didn’t think much about it, but I didn’t have to, you know? The song just had to be made; I just needed to get that done to get to the next song. I thought it was a cool song for me. I enjoyed it and I thought a few people would like it; it turned out a lot more people liked it than I expected. It was my personal record for me and I didn’t really think outside of me when I wrote it.

Not to sound funny, but I had better ideas than that that I never did because I knew they were songs that would be for me and I thought no one else would give a fukk. They were never recorded and I forgot what they were. I still feel like I could channel that person, though, if it comes down to it; that guy in me; that writer. It may not be received in a great or big way, but I would love it.

Saying "Nas goes mainstream" on It Was Written is an easy way of looking at it, but it was a lot more complicated than that. I started that record and the record leaked, so I had to get a new game plan because I didn’t know who I can trust and who I can record with where the songs wouldn’t leak and who would see my bigger vision. I was starting to hear my influence on a lot of rappers that were making names for themselves and I had to figure out a way to survive because if rap fans would say, "Well everybody sounds the same, doing the same thing," then it’s over for you.

So how do you make yourself different enough and boost yourself up on the level that you’re on if people are trying to sound like you or talk like you? Our task was to get over what they called back then, the sophomore jinx. So I needed real producers. Notorious B.I.G. had serious production. My first album had serious production, but I had already worked with them, so I needed to do something that would be next level because the game had become more serious on every lev


no mention of stray bullet by Organise Konfusion

 

[MoneyBags]

1. live at the barbeque
2. halftime
3. "Life's a bytch"
4. world is yours
5. I gave you power
6. nas is coming ...
7. hate me now
8. Nastradamus"
9. "Got Ur Self A...
10. 2nd Childhood
11. Poppa Was a Playa
12. "Last Real N---a Alive"
13. Dance"
14. Bridging the Gap
15. Hip Hop Is Dead
16. Who Killed It
17. Not Going Back
18. Untitled
19. No Introduction"

i lowkey hate this double post thing ... i am wait and post all the parts of the article as people respond ...

cot damn Nas...some of these songs are the worst in his discography, WTF?

 

[Jimmy ValenTime]

"Nas Is Coming"
It Was Written (1996)

It was the middle of the East-West war. Dre had left Death Row and I was a big fan of Dre’s and Dre liked my stuff. A few years before, I was new and I went out and performed at this club that Prince owned in Los Angeles at the time. The club was hitting. It's right before the album dropped and I came out with a glass of Hennessy and a cigar and I said my stuff and I left and I think that impressed Dre. He saw the L.A. audience reacting well to it too and we talked and he was still at Death Row at this point.

Years later, I’m in the business and we're right in the middle of this East Coast-West Coast shyt. Dre just wanted to make music; he wasn’t really caught up in that shyt. At the end of the day, he's riding for his team, but he got to a point where there was internal beef on his side and he wanted to work and I wanted to work. The East and West wasn’t really too happy about that, but we wanted to work together and "Nas Is Coming" was the first thing we did.

The whole East Coast-West Coast thing, I was just watching what was going on. Tupac showed me a lot of respect on the intro to Makaveli—he called me the leader of the East Coast—so me and him both had a mutual respect, and I didn’t want any East Coast-West Coast beef at all.

The alleged ring leader

 

[Jimmy ValenTime]

"Hate Me Now"
I Am... (1999)

After my first record, they were like, "You can’t do it again. He can’t do this. He can’t do that. He’s not as big as this one. He’s not as big as that one. He’ll never be around again. He’s too grimy. He’s too street. He has a bad following. People around him start trouble." I had a bad rap, so I blew that away with the second album. So now they mad at that, and found a different reason to be mad at me. So "Hate Me Now" was the appropriate record at the time.

 

[Jimmy ValenTime]

"Nastradamus"
Nastradamus (1999)

The song was a EPMD sample and I just freestyled it. I was riding high off multi-platinum sales off I Am…, and just didn’t want to do anything but freestyle that single and put it out. We had a concept to make the video 3D, but we didn’t figure out how to get all the glasses to people and time was against us. Glasses were made, but obviously not enough for every household, so we fukked that one up a little bit. On that album, there’s a couple of songs that have a certain sound to it that doesn’t sound like anything else I’ve done. And it was a gray area in my life and that album represents that gray area. It was personal stuff that I'd rather not elaborate on. But I have nothing against that album.

I Am…, [released earlier that year], was originally supposed to be a double album, but the songs leaked and that killed it for me. I didn’t want to touch it. I hated that because no one’s supposed to hear a song before it’s time, so if that happens, I didn't fukk with the record. It’s over. The record never existed. So I went and started brand new music. At the time, my brother Jungle was managing Noriega and Nature and he was getting a lot of beats from guys that were just blasting in the business, like Dame Grease and Swizz Beatz, and those beats was ahead of their time and I didn’t understand them that well. Then DMX and Nori really made them happen and I was able to go grab Dame Grease, [who produced four songs from Nastradamus] and be like, "Yo, work with me." The Nostradamus thing was about the end of the world being the year 2000, so my record would be dropping right toward the end of the world.

 

[mr.africa]

keep em coming. i'm loving this!!!