Like all true Nas fans, when I heard these words sung on the hook of the first single from his last LP Nastrodamus, I cringed. In addition to being a sub par track, the song forced me to accept a sad ...

On this day in 2001, the self-crowned “King of New York” released his fifth studio LP, Stillmatic. During Nas’s musical absence the power in New York had shifted and Jay-Z had stepped up and eclipsed ...

On this day, Dec. 18, in hip-hop history... Stillmatic was met with wide-spread critical acclaim, with most critics across the board voicing their excitement that the Nas of old was back. The LP ...

It’s unclear what served as the lightning rod for Nasir Jone’s reassertion of his rightful place. But today, on the day Stillmatic turns eighteen, it’s evident that inspiration struck exactly when it ...

In 1994. a young Queensbridge native called Nasty Nas created a 10-song masterpiece, “Illmatic.” Nasty Nas painted vivid street narratives as if he witnessed them first hand. The album represented ...

Hit-Boy hopped on one of his frequent collaborator's beats. So it's no surprise that when he was asked to freestyle on The Bootleg Kev Podcast, Hit-Boy decided to rap over Nas' "Stillmatic (Intro)." ...

Following the murders of feuding megastars Notorious B.I.G. and Tupac Shakur, hip-hop was inundated with idealistic rhetoric about stopping the violence and/or increasing the peace. But everyone loves ...

What has set 28-year-old Nas (Nasir Jones) apart from many rappers of his generation on discs such as “Illmatic,” “It Was Written,” “Nastradamus” and “I Am” is his ability to look outside the ...

The release of ‘Stillmatic’ sees one of the giants of New York hip-hop in a tight spot. His first album, 1994’s ‘Illmatic’, is one of rap’s key texts; a tough, eloquent and political record which set ...

Nasir Jones, a.k.a. Nas, may never produce another album quite like Illmatic. Yet his latest release, Stillmatic, should be enough to restore his place as the King of New York. While the mainstream ...