spliz
SplizThaDon
song was dedicated to/about nas
Still can't believe Nas didn't win a Grammy for Cherry Wine.
Official Nas Thread
- Thread starter Ronald
- Start date
Still can't believe Nas didn't win a Grammy for Cherry Wine.
Happy B-Day to the GOAT
IllmaticDelta
Veteran
happy born day to the god
Happy 43rd Birthday to the G.O.A.T.
DeuceZ
Li pitit gason
Woke up early on his born day 
JP_614
Superstar
"School didn’t encourage me to use my imagination either. School didn’t relate to what I was dealing with in my community nor did school encourage me to learn about my history, my community or ancestors. But Nas did. Through his songs like “I Want to Talk To You,” “Sly Fox,” “Black Girl Lost,” “A Message To The Feds, We Sincerely the People,” “Doo Rags,” among many others. Nas spit unruly, and disrespectful street-hop that made him Nasty Nas. However, his intellect and ideas about saving blacks, and blacks needing to wake up are what attracted me. He was one of us, yet he was looking for a way exit the dire socioeconomic and mental abyss that plagues the ghettos of America. With that, he pushed me to search for answers. "
One of the reasons Nas is the best to me..
Thanks for the read!
IllmaticDelta
Veteran
Knuckle game, it's like Rubin Hurricane
Dance to the music for the brain
Y'all dudes will never see me down
Reading everything, books and body language
Du Bois, Baldwin, and Chavis
Assata, John Hope Franklin, Angela Davis
Keep your chest up, head straight, eyes to the center
In your worst situation, gotta rise you a winner
IllmaticDelta
Veteran
Life is Good
All Star
Real Artists Do Real Things: an Article by Nas
On this day in 1973, Nasir Jones, aka Nas, was born in Crown Heights, Brooklyn. As a young child, he moved with his family to the Queensbridge Houses, a project in Long Island City, Queens that he would put on the map with his debut album Illmatic. On that album’s third track, “Life’s a bytch” he rapped:
“I woke up early on my born day; I’m 20, it’s a blessing
The essence of adolescence leaves my body, now I’m fresh
And, my physical frame is celebrated ‘cause I made it
One-quarter through life, some Godly-like thing created”
Well, he’s made it twice as far in age now, and probably further than he ever imagined with his landmark career. In honor of his 43rd born day, we present an article that Nas wrote for Mass Appeal’s magazine back in 2014.
– Rhett Jones
Real Artists Do Real Things
Words: Nasir Jones
Photo: Danny Clinch
No one’s perfect. I never want to perfect; I can’t be.
I never try to act like I am‘ cause I’m far from it. But I’m trying to be the best that I can be. It’s important that people realize that there’s a brilliant light that burns in each and every one of us and sometimes we don’t allow that light to shine. Sometimes we get scared of that light; we’re scared of where it might take us, we’re scared of failure and there has to come a time in your life when you have to put fear to the side. You have to go for it.
There’s usually someone that you’re around who doesn’t believe what you believe; he or she may say something to discourage you in an effort to take you off of your game (yes, hating takes effort). But you have to let that light shine. You have to let that light lead us. Sadly, there are some of us who put our own fires out. There are so many people out here who put their light out and they say, “I’m gonna get it the street way”…but there are all kinds of ways to make it in America.
Me? I put myself around a lot of wise people who know a thing or two about the world we’re living in, and I take that and I sharpen myself up to run with the light. I think a big part of being an artist is not being afraid. You have to do what you feel. If you do what you feel, man you’ll be surprised at the results when you really stick to your plan.
I really love what Lauryn is doing musically because it sounds pure. It has balls. It’s real. These are her thoughts. It’s not about her looking cool. It’s not about her doing what we expect, or what we want her to do coming out of jail. It’s Lauryn doing what she has to do for her soul and her mind. The music, along with the lyrics, is like “wow.” It takes me on a trip.
There’s a big misunderstanding about the music and the artist — and the music VS the artist — in hip hop. What’s real? What’s not real? Etcetera. A professor at Harvard, who really imagined Biggie to be a serious killer, asked me “How was Biggie?” Man, Biggie was funny as fukk! He would have you in stitches. He was from the streets through and through. But you know, just because he rapped about it didn’t mean he was really on the street killing people. Give him more credit than that. Give hip hop more credit than that. Like, Al Pacino: he knows what Italian-American street life was when he was getting into film, but we respected him for his craft. Was he slicing dudes out on the street for real? People left that alone and respected his craft. We didn’t say, “Are you out here killing people, Big Al?” Whether he had bodies or not, that didn’t make him or break him. Only difference between Biggie and Al, was B.I.G wasn’t acting. It was life through his eyes, and we were honored that he shared it with us.
I didn’t experience anything like that until I started the second album…when the records were selling crazy. People were like “Why are you on the Escobar tip, why are you talking more about money? Why you this? Why you that?” And I said, “This is just rap music, this is what we do.” I understand that sometimes, kids are gonna wanna buy what we’re saying we’re buying. Still, people don’t recognize the arts in our crafts; they’re just focusing on those kids who just want to go to Barney’s to buy fly shyt or to go to Louis Vuitton, Versace – that’s all they see. But there is art and science and math in the way we sequence and choose our words. Additionally, for the record, real artists don’t wake up in the morning and say, “I’m gonna make the black community waste their money on high-end brands.” That’s not the artist’s intention. The artist is having a good time. Yes, some artists are more informed than others, some artists are more conscious than others. But can’t an artist have a good time sometimes? Sometimes, art and expression comes from a place where it’s not about pain or oppression — just pure expression. Just exclamations that sound off into the ether.
They came down on Biggie — “All he’s talking about is Versace.” It’s great to have criticism from the people but during that Escobar era, I started to feel like I was getting hated on. Before that, no one said anything to me about my choice of words, my artistry, because I woulda blew your fukking face off. Nobody was questioning nothing. I had 65 nikkas with me who had answers for you if you had questions about my shyt back in those days. That’s what it was. Different times now. There was a war going on outside my project window. Now, my window sees the world and my influences can come from anywhere. Like the great Queens DJ/producer Eric B. once said, “Together, we can get paid in full!”
On this day in 1973, Nasir Jones, aka Nas, was born in Crown Heights, Brooklyn. As a young child, he moved with his family to the Queensbridge Houses, a project in Long Island City, Queens that he would put on the map with his debut album Illmatic. On that album’s third track, “Life’s a bytch” he rapped:
“I woke up early on my born day; I’m 20, it’s a blessing
The essence of adolescence leaves my body, now I’m fresh
And, my physical frame is celebrated ‘cause I made it
One-quarter through life, some Godly-like thing created”
Well, he’s made it twice as far in age now, and probably further than he ever imagined with his landmark career. In honor of his 43rd born day, we present an article that Nas wrote for Mass Appeal’s magazine back in 2014.
– Rhett Jones
Real Artists Do Real Things
Words: Nasir Jones
Photo: Danny Clinch
No one’s perfect. I never want to perfect; I can’t be.
I never try to act like I am‘ cause I’m far from it. But I’m trying to be the best that I can be. It’s important that people realize that there’s a brilliant light that burns in each and every one of us and sometimes we don’t allow that light to shine. Sometimes we get scared of that light; we’re scared of where it might take us, we’re scared of failure and there has to come a time in your life when you have to put fear to the side. You have to go for it.
There’s usually someone that you’re around who doesn’t believe what you believe; he or she may say something to discourage you in an effort to take you off of your game (yes, hating takes effort). But you have to let that light shine. You have to let that light lead us. Sadly, there are some of us who put our own fires out. There are so many people out here who put their light out and they say, “I’m gonna get it the street way”…but there are all kinds of ways to make it in America.
Me? I put myself around a lot of wise people who know a thing or two about the world we’re living in, and I take that and I sharpen myself up to run with the light. I think a big part of being an artist is not being afraid. You have to do what you feel. If you do what you feel, man you’ll be surprised at the results when you really stick to your plan.
I really love what Lauryn is doing musically because it sounds pure. It has balls. It’s real. These are her thoughts. It’s not about her looking cool. It’s not about her doing what we expect, or what we want her to do coming out of jail. It’s Lauryn doing what she has to do for her soul and her mind. The music, along with the lyrics, is like “wow.” It takes me on a trip.
There’s a big misunderstanding about the music and the artist — and the music VS the artist — in hip hop. What’s real? What’s not real? Etcetera. A professor at Harvard, who really imagined Biggie to be a serious killer, asked me “How was Biggie?” Man, Biggie was funny as fukk! He would have you in stitches. He was from the streets through and through. But you know, just because he rapped about it didn’t mean he was really on the street killing people. Give him more credit than that. Give hip hop more credit than that. Like, Al Pacino: he knows what Italian-American street life was when he was getting into film, but we respected him for his craft. Was he slicing dudes out on the street for real? People left that alone and respected his craft. We didn’t say, “Are you out here killing people, Big Al?” Whether he had bodies or not, that didn’t make him or break him. Only difference between Biggie and Al, was B.I.G wasn’t acting. It was life through his eyes, and we were honored that he shared it with us.
I didn’t experience anything like that until I started the second album…when the records were selling crazy. People were like “Why are you on the Escobar tip, why are you talking more about money? Why you this? Why you that?” And I said, “This is just rap music, this is what we do.” I understand that sometimes, kids are gonna wanna buy what we’re saying we’re buying. Still, people don’t recognize the arts in our crafts; they’re just focusing on those kids who just want to go to Barney’s to buy fly shyt or to go to Louis Vuitton, Versace – that’s all they see. But there is art and science and math in the way we sequence and choose our words. Additionally, for the record, real artists don’t wake up in the morning and say, “I’m gonna make the black community waste their money on high-end brands.” That’s not the artist’s intention. The artist is having a good time. Yes, some artists are more informed than others, some artists are more conscious than others. But can’t an artist have a good time sometimes? Sometimes, art and expression comes from a place where it’s not about pain or oppression — just pure expression. Just exclamations that sound off into the ether.
They came down on Biggie — “All he’s talking about is Versace.” It’s great to have criticism from the people but during that Escobar era, I started to feel like I was getting hated on. Before that, no one said anything to me about my choice of words, my artistry, because I woulda blew your fukking face off. Nobody was questioning nothing. I had 65 nikkas with me who had answers for you if you had questions about my shyt back in those days. That’s what it was. Different times now. There was a war going on outside my project window. Now, my window sees the world and my influences can come from anywhere. Like the great Queens DJ/producer Eric B. once said, “Together, we can get paid in full!”