Last week, I read an article on cnn.com that proclaimed Nas as the greatest lyricist of all time. The greatest of all time. I am a big Nas fan, so the article did not bother me at all. Although Nas is not my favorite rapper, he is in my top five. When I reflect on some of the lyrics he has rapped over the years, I have to respect his talent.
I did not begin listening to Nas until the Summer of 1996. I heard his album It Was Written while I was playing in an AAU basketball tournament in Orlando, Florida. One of my teammates was listening to the album on his portable cd player. At that time, the portable cd player was the newest musical device on the market. We were not too far removed from listening to cassette tapes on Walkmans. He let me listen to the album while we were in Florida. When I came back home to Winston-Salem, that was the first album I bought. I also bought Outkast's album Atliens and Jay-Z's album, Reasonable Doubt. That was a great summer for the hip hop movement.
After listening to It Was Written, I knew I needed to hear more from Nas. I did a little research and discovered that he had released another album named Illmatic. After listening to Illmatic, I realized Nas was truly on another level lyrically. I also realized that he might be too complex of an artist to truly be appreciated. It is easy to not appreciate greatness until years later. I watched Michael Jordan play during the 90's and I became accustomed to him scoring 30 points every game. It became common and because he did it so effortlessly, it was hard to appreciate how great he really was. Nas is the same way. He probably won't be appreciated the way that he should until he has either retired or passed on to the next life.
Either way, I think Nas is one of the best lyricists of all time.
Peace
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