Nas Popular rap star and producer Nasir bin Olu Dara Jones, known to the world simply as Nas, was born September 14, 1973, in Long Island City, New York. No one was surprised when Nas expressed his desire to enter the world of music seeing as his father was Olu Dara the jazz musician. Dara, however, left the family in 1986, and Nas’s mother Fannie Ann Jones was left to raise her two children alone. Nas quit school by the eighth grade, opting to educate himself on African culture through the Qur’an, the Five Percent Nation, and the Bible. He was also intently interested on the origins of hip hop music. Introduced to music by way of the trumpet and also dabbling briefly in comic book artistry, Nas settled on rapping as a vocation by the time he was just a preteen.
Nas quickly enlisted best friend and neighbor Willie “Ill Will” Graham to serve as his DJ. Together they found substantial underground success but remained unsigned by any major record label. The union was cut prematurely and tragically short when Graham was shot and killed in 1992. Still reeling from the loss, Nas found MC Serch who would ultimately become his manager. The same year, Serch earned Nas a deal with Colombia Records. Nas was featured on Serch’s new album as well as on the soundtrack for Zebrahead starring Kevin Corrigan and Michael Rapaport. All of this only added more buzz and anticipation to Nas’s debut album. In 1994, the album finally hit stores. Titled Illmatic, it was released to rave reviews by critics and fans alike. Some fans of the genre even hail it as the best of its kind. However, the album’s non-commercial sound coupled with heavy bootlegging made actual sales poor. Pressured to create something more mainstream, Nas changed managers and released It Was Written in 1996. Accompanied by Lauryn Hill and sampling from Tupac Shakur’s beats, singles quickly became hits. Nas finally became a mainstream name in hip-hop. By 1998 he even co-starred in the film Belly with DMX, TLC, and others.
His follow-up album was widely criticized, although the Timbaland produced track “You Owe Me” did meet with minor success. Nas then became embroiled in a long feud with Jay Z, although the two rappers kept it strictly to lyrical insults. This publicity, as well as the release of Stillmatic, revitalized Nas’s career, which had been noticeably slipping since the release of Illmatic. In 2002, God’s Son hit the shelves, and it was named Time magazine’s hip-hop album of the year. He also collaborated with hip hop giant Kanye West for the single “We Major.” Finding success in his personal life as well, Nas married fellow rap star and longtime girlfriend Kelis in 2005. The following year, Nas signed on with Def Jam to release Hip Hop Is Dead. More recently, Nas provided the song “Shine on ‘Em” for the Leonardo DiCaprio and Djimon Hounsou film, Blood Diamond. YUDDY | 
