Nas is one of hip-hop’s most renowned lyricists. Hailing from Queensbridge, the emcee (real name Nasir Jones) was one of New York’s most prestigious acts and is still widely considered one of the greatest MCs ever.
However, the iconic rapper did not burst onto the mainstream instantly. Akin to so many artists, he was rejected by various labels before he eventually signed with Columbia Records. However, he had been a potent underground emcee since he was a teenager.
In various interviews, New York label executive and producer Large Professor has explained that in the early days of his career, industry heads, including Russell Simmons, refused to sign Nas as his sound was too reminiscent of other acts out at the time. However, under the wing of MC Serch, when Jones finally found a musical home, he shook the culture.
In 1994, at the age of just 21, Nas released his debut project, Illmatic, a body of work so exceptional it was inducted into the Library of Congress in 2021 due to its cultural impact.
With the help of powerhouses such as DJ Premier, Large Professor, Pete Rock, Q-Tip, and L.E.S, Jones carefully crafted an album which, to this day, still holds weight. With lyrics illustrating the run-down inner city, the rapper managed to romanticise very sombre themes and found beauty in what most would consider squalor.
Queensbdrige, the home of Mobb Deep and Juice Crew, was home to many legends in the 1980s and ’90s and, akin to the South Bronx has a rich history. However, it wouldn’t have been easy growing up there.
In a 2021 interview with the Financial Times, Jones spoke about his childhood there, recalling, “All I could see in my dreams was guns. I kept having nightmares about cops, and this was a time where I was removed from the hood, but I survived. I made it out.”
He added, “It felt like the danger from the block was still right around the corner. We were young men who had to grow up so fast, and there was a lot of responsibility on our shoulders.” Growing up, one thing that gave Jones relief was music. As the son of a jazz musician, he was exposed to all kinds of genres, from funk to soul and gospel.
In an interview with Vevo about his early influences, the It Was Written creator explained the creation of his track ‘It Ain’t Hard To Tell’ which samples Michael Jackson and how he insisted Large Professor sample the late King of Pop
Recalling the song’s inception, Jones detailed, “I’m a big Michael Jackson fan, and there were many different versions of that [track] that Large Professor did. I was really tripping at how he sampled it cause Michael being one of my faves, it was incredible for me to have that as a record. I never thought that I was gonna get the deal and get signed, so I was happy with the end result, and we did it. To clear a sample, there’s a process, but being signed to the same label as Michael, it was like the man upstairs made that happen. It was just meant to be!”
Nas doubled down on his love for Michael Jackson in a later interview with Rolling Stone, during which he stated, “That was one of the records that jump-started the commercial success for me on my first album, the Michael Jackson sample [‘Human Nature’]. That was my introduction to the world, my first official single, so I had to do that.”
‘Human Nature’ appeared on the world’s highest-selling album, Thriller and had a hip-hop rebirth in Nas’ ‘It Ain’t Hard To Tell’.
