People Who Inspired Me To Be A Writer: Nas

“It ain't hard to tell, I excel, then prevail

The mic is contacted, I attract clientele

My mic check is life or death, breathin' a sniper's breath

I exhale the yellow smoke of buddha through righteous steps

Deep like The Shining, sparkle like a diamond

Sneak a Uzi on the island in my army jacket linin'

… Hit the Earth like a comet-, invasion!

Nas is like the Afrocentric Asian, half-man, half-amazin'

'Cause in my physical, I can express through song

Delete stress like Motrin, then extend strong

I drink Moët with Medusa, give her shotguns in Hell

From the spliff that I lift and inhale; it ain't hard to tell” - Nas (It ain’t hard to tell)

Those are the lyrics of Nasir Jones aka Nas from his song “It ain’t hard to Tell” off his debut album Illmatic. Nas is one of the greatest rappers of all time. He’s also one of my top favorite 5 Hip Hop artists ever and someone who inspires me as a writer.

Nas’ lineage as a rapper is well known. He hails from Queens, New York and in the time before he became a rapping emcee at a young age he was a drug dealer on the streets of his neighborhood known as Queensbridge. When his close friend and fellow dealer/ aspiring Hip Hop artist Ill Will was killed he decided to fully devote his time to his craft of as rapper as a well meaning change of lifestyle. He became well known in the streets of New York’s Hip Hop scene. Many would refer to him by the nickname “Nasty Nas”.

Nas’ debut album Illmatic was released in 1994 to universal critical acclaim. Though it was not commercially successful due to the dominating West Coast Hip Hop scene at the time, the album’s commercial standing would increase greatly overtime into multi-platinum status. During what remained of the 90’s Nas would follow up the success of the album with his second and third albums It Was Written (1996) and I…Am (1999), both would be multi-platinum hits for Nas.

Following the critical and commercial disappointment of his fourth album Nastradamus (1999) as well as his highly publicized fued with fellow New York emcee Jay- Z, Nas grew into a new era of greatness with his fifth album Stillmatic (2001).

Stillmatic brought Nas back to multi-platinum status that was followed by his critically acclaimed sixth and seventh albums God’s Son (2002) and Street’s Disciple (2004). The rest, as they say, would be history.

Nas is a big inspiration to me as a writer for many of the same reasons why he is a big inspiration to me as a rapper, his subject matter, storytelling and his way with words. From the very first moment I started rapping in front of the people around me when I was just eight years old, Nas was there. Of course his music was always played around me in the time before when I was just a toddler, but it struck the biggest chord with me in late 2001 when I first started displaying my rapping skills as an emcee when he released Stillmatic in 2001.

Yo, all I need is one mic, one beat, one stage

One person front, my face on the front page

Only if I had one gun, one girl and one crib

One God to show me how to do things his son did.” - Nas (One Mic).

In the same vein as my other top five biggest influences from Hip Hop including: Ice Cube, Tupac Shakur and DMX, Nas struck a big chord with me, not only because of his skills as an emcee, but with the things he talked about. He also carries a very poetic tune so I also keep him in mind when I write poetry. I always identified with his commentary on life in the projects, but I definitely found his insight on having a relationship with God eye opening too. For me he was another great rapper who made it look okay to be cool and talk about God and struggles with being imperfect in his music. It made me comfortable do so as well, so I followed suit when I started writing my own lyrics. I have a funny memory of my grandma watching me watch the music video to his song “One Mic” from Stillmatic and hearing Nas mention God and she thought it was impressive to hear a rapper doing such.

“Be, be-fore we came to this country

We were kings and queens, never porch monkeys

There was empires in Africa called Kush

Timbuktu, where every race came to get books

To learn from Black teachers who taught Greeks and Romans

Asian, Arabs and gave them gold, when

Gold was converted to money it all changed

Money then became empowerment for Europeans

The Persian military invaded

They heard about the gold, the teachings, and everything sacred

Africa was almost robbed naked

Slavery was money, so they began making slave ships

Egypt was the place that Alexander the Great went

He was so shocked at the mountains with Black faces

Shot off they nose to impose what basically

Still goes on today, you see?” - Nas (I Can)

When it comes to consciousness in Hip Hop I feel like Nas is one of the unspoken kings. He gets acknowledgment for it, but not as much as he should because of the greatness in his lyrical ability. Nas’ consciousness of the world at large is also where he has inspired me greatly. When I write I love to tell stories or make some form of literature that refers to issues in the world dealing with social injustice, racism, religion, economic struggle, whatever the issue maybe and the way Nas does it has always been a big frame of reference because he speaks not as the king of the world looking over everyone else, but from the point of view of one of the people who have been impacted by these issues. The song “I Can” off of his 2002 album God’s Son is a great example of this. Nas contributed the idea that consciousness is cool and many artist who have been influenced by him have carried that torch.

Fast forward to the present day and Nas is still one of the biggest and most influential voices in Hip Hop. He has taught me to not only master the craft of your talent, but tell great stories and be sure to take the initiative to speak about what matters most to the world so you can always relate to those who need a voice. He also showed me that being a great storyteller means coming from a struggle. Whether it was the bad things you did or the bad things that were done to you, all of it is your testimony to the world, a story that someone needs to hear. Nas is still telling great stories, still talking about the issues that matter most in the world, Still-matic, and that’s the type artist/storyteller I aspire to be, someone who can tell stories about any point in time that will last the test of time. Who is Nasir Jones? A rapper, a poet, an amazing storyteller and one of the many people who inspired me to be a writer.