Nas

Nasir bin Olu Dara Jones ( nah-SEER; born September 14, 1973), known mononymously as Nas ( NAHZ), is an American rapper, entrepreneur, and record producer. Rooted in East Coast hip-hop, he is regarded as one of the greatest rappers of all time. The son of jazz musician Olu Dara, Nas began his musical career in 1989 under the moniker "Nasty Nas", and recorded demos under the wing of fellow East Coast rapper Large Professor. Nas made his recording debut on Professor's group, Main Source's 1991 song "Live at the Barbeque".

Nas signed with Columbia Records in 1992, and released his debut studio album, Illmatic on April 19, 1994. An inductee of the Library of Congress's National Recording Registry, it has been regarded as one of the greatest hip-hop albums of all time. His second album, It Was Written (1996), debuted atop the Billboard 200 and sold over a quarter-million units in its first week; the album, along with its lead single "If I Ruled the World (Imagine That)" (featuring Lauryn Hill), propelled Nas into mainstream success. Both released in 1999, Nas's third and fourth albums I Am and Nastradamus were criticized as inconsistent and too commercially oriented, with critics and audiences fearing a decline in the quality of his output.

From 2001 to 2005, Nas was involved in a highly publicized feud with fellow New York rapper Jay-Z, popularized by the former's diss track "Ether". The feud, along with Nas's subsequent releases Stillmatic (2001), God's Son (2002), and the double album Street's Disciple (2004) helped him restore his critical standing. Nas then reconciled with Jay-Z prior to signing with his then-spearheaded label, Def Jam Recordings in 2006; he adopted a more provocative, politicized direction with the albums Hip Hop Is Dead (2006) and his untitled ninth studio album (2008). In 2010, Nas released Distant Relatives, a collaborative album with Damian Marley that donated its royalties to active African charities. His tenth studio album, Life Is Good (2012), was nominated for Best Rap Album at the 55th Annual Grammy Awards. After thirteen nominations, his thirteenth studio album, King's Disease (2020) won his first Grammy for Best Rap Album at the 63rd Annual Grammy Awards. His five subsequent albums—King's Disease II, Magic (2021), King's Disease III (2022), Magic 2, and Magic 3 (2023)—were each produced entirely by Hit-Boy and met with critical praise. In 2025, Nas released his long-awaited collaborative album with DJ Premier.

Nas was ranked number two by The Source on their "Top 50 Lyricists of All Time" list in 2012, fourth on MTV's Annual Hottest MCs in the Game list in 2013, and was named the "Greatest MC of All Time" by About.com in 2014. The following year, Nas was featured on the "10 Best Rappers of All Time" list by Billboard. Outside of recording, he serves as associate publisher of Mass Appeal magazine, and co-founded its spin-off division Mass Appeal Records, a record label that has signed artists including Dave East, N.O.R.E., Run the Jewels, and Swizz Beatz, among others. Nas has released seventeen studio albums since 1994, ten of which are certified gold, platinum or multi-platinum in the U.S.

Nasir bin Olu Dara Jones was born in the Brooklyn borough of New York City on September 14, 1973, to African American parents. His father, Olu Dara (born Charles Jones III), is a jazz and blues musician from Mississippi. His mother, Fannie Ann (née Little; 1941–2002) was a U.S. Postal Service worker from North Carolina. He has a brother, Jabari Fret, who raps under the name Jungle and is a member of hip-hop group Bravehearts. His father adopted the name "Olu Dara" from the Yoruba people. "Nasir" is an Arabic name meaning "helper and protector", while "bin" means "son of" in Arabic. He is a cousin of actors Yara Shahidi and Sayeed Shahidi.

As a young child, Nas and his family relocated to the Queensbridge Houses of the Long Island City community area in the borough of Queens. His neighbor, Willie "Ill Will" Graham, influenced his interest in hip-hop by playing him records. His parents divorced in 1985, and he dropped out of school after the eighth grade. He educated himself about African culture through the Five-Percent Nation (a splinter group of the Nation of Islam) and the Nuwaubian Nation. In his early years, he played the trumpet and began writing his own rhymes.

As a teenager, Nas enlisted his best friend and upstairs neighbor Willie "Ill Will" Graham as his DJ. Nas initially went by the nickname Kid Wave before adopting his more commonly known alias of Nasty Nas. In 1989, then-16-year-old Nas met up with producer Large Professor and went to the studio where Rakim and Kool G Rap were recording their albums. When they were not in the recording studio, Nas would go into the booth and record his own material. However, none of it was ever released.

In July 1991, Nas appeared on Main Source's "Live at the Barbeque", also produced by Large Professor, marking his debut appearance. Despite underground buzz, he was rejected by major rap labels including Cold Chillin' and Def Jam Recordings. At the time, Nas continued working with Ill Will until he was murdered in May 1992, with the former citing the incident as a "wake-up call" for him. In mid-1992, Nas was approached by MC Serch of 3rd Bass, who became his manager and secured Nas a record deal with Columbia Records through contacting Faith Newman, an A&R executive at Sony Music. He would also appear on a track from MC Serch's album Return of the Product alongside Chubb Rock and Red Hot Lover Tone that August. In October, Nas made his solo debut on the single "Halftime" under the name Nasty Nas from the soundtrack for the film Zebrahead. Called the new Rakim, his rhyming skills attracted a significant amount of attention within the hip-hop community. The track would eventually be included on his debut album Illmatic.

On April 19, 1994, Nas's debut album, Illmatic, was released. It featured production from Large Professor, Pete Rock, Q-Tip, LES and DJ Premier, as well as guest appearances from Nas's friend AZ and his father Olu Dara. The album spawned several singles, including "The World Is Yours", "It Ain't Hard to Tell", and "One Love". Shaheem Reid of MTV News called Illmatic "the first classic LP" of 1994. In 1994, Nas also recorded the song "One on One" for the soundtrack to the film Street Fighter. In his book To the Break of Dawn: A Freestyle on the Hip Hop Aesthetic, William Jelani Cobb writes of Nas's impact at the time:

Nas, the poetic sage of the Queensbridge projects, was hailed as the second coming of Rakim—as if the first had reached his expiration date. [...] Nas never became 'the next Rakim,' nor did he really have to. Illmatic stood on its own terms. The sublime lyricism of the CD, combined with the fact that it was delivered into the crucible of the boiling East-West conflict, quickly solidified [his] reputation as the premier writer of his time.

Illmatic was awarded best album of 1994 by The Source. Steve Huey of AllMusic described Nas's lyrics on Illmatic as "highly literate" and his raps "superbly fluid regardless of the size of his vocabulary", adding that Nas is "able to evoke the bleak reality of ghetto life without losing hope or forgetting the good times". About.com ranked Illmatic as the greatest hip-hop album of all time, and Prefix magazine praised it as "the best hip hop record ever made".

Nas has been praised for his ability to create a "devastating match between lyrics and production" by journalist Peter Shapiro, as well as creating a "potent evocation of life on the street", and he has even been compared to Rakim for his lyrical technique. In his book Book of Rhymes: The Poetics of Hip Hop (2009), writer Adam Bradley states, "Nas is perhaps contemporary rap's greatest innovator in storytelling. His catalog includes songs narrated before birth ('Fetus') and after death ('Amongst Kings'), biographies ('UBR [Unauthorized Biography of Rakim]') and autobiographies ('Doo Rags'), allegorical tales ('Money Is My Bitch') and epistolary ones ('One Love'), he's rapped in the voice of a woman ('Sekou Story') and even of a gun ('I Gave You Power')." Robert Christgau writes that "Nas has been transfiguring [gangsta rap] since Illmatic". Kool Moe Dee notes that Nas has an "off-beat conversational flow" in his book There's a God on the Mic – he says: "before Nas, every MC focused on rhyming with a cadence that ultimately put the words that rhymed on beat with the snare drum. Nas created a style of rapping that was more conversational than ever before".

O.C. of D.I.T.C. comments in the book How to Rap: "Nas did the song backwards ['Rewind']... that was a brilliant idea". Also in How to Rap, 2Mex of The Visionaries describes Nas's flow as "effervescent", Rah Digga says Nas's lyrics have "intricacy", Bootie Brown of The Pharcyde explains that Nas does not always have to make words rhyme as he is "charismatic", and Nas is also described as having a "densely packed" flow, with compound rhymes that "run over from one beat into the next or even into another bar".

On March 15, 2012, Nas became the first rapper to have a personal verified account on Genius, where he explains his own lyrics and occasionally comments on lyrics from other rappers he admires.

About.com ranked him 1st on their list of the "50 Greatest MCs of All Time" in 2014, and a year later, Nas was featured on the "10 Best Rappers of All Time" list by Billboard. The Source ranked him No. 2 on their list of the Top 50 Lyricists of All Time. In 2013, Nas was ranked fourth on MTV's "Hottest MCs in the Game" list. His debut, Illmatic, is widely considered among the greatest hip-hop albums of all time.

In July 2013, Harvard University established the Nasir Jones Hip-Hop Fellowship as part of the Hip-Hop Archives and W. E. B. Du Bois Research Institute, to fund scholars and artists who show potential and creativity in the arts in connection to hip-hop. On November 12, 2019, Nas was honored by Haute Living, along with Watches of Switzerland and Hennessy, in a celebratory affair that included a violin rendition of iconic Nas songs performed by Edward W. Hardy.

On April 10, 2013, Nas invested an undisclosed six-figure sum into Mass Appeal magazine, where he went on to serve as the publication's associate publisher, joined by creative firm Decon and White Owl Capital Partners. In May 2013, it was announced that Nas would open a sneaker store in Las Vegas called 12 am RUN (pronounced Midnight Run) as part of The LINQ retail development, with it opening the following month. Nas has a partnership with Hennessy and worked on their "Wild Rabbit" campaign.

In September 2013, he invested in a technology startup company, a job search appmaker called Proven. In 2014, Nas invested as part of a $2.8M round in viral video startup ViralGains another addition to Queens-bridge venture partners portfolio.

In May 2014, Nas partnered with job placement startup Koru to fund a scholarship for 10 college graduates to go through Koru's training program. Nas will also be joining the startup as a guest coach. Nas is a co-owner of a Cloud-based service LANDR, an automated, drag-and-drop digital audio postproduction tool which automates "mastering", the final stage in audio production. In June 2015, Nas joined forces with New York City soul food restaurant Sweet Chick. He plans to expand the restaurant brand nationally. The Los Angeles location opened in April 2017. He owns his own clothing line called HSTRY.

In June 2018, Nas was paid $40 million after Amazon acquired the doorbell company Ring Inc. as well as PillPack – the latter of which he invested in via his investment firm, Queensbridge Venture Partners.

He has continued to invest heavily in technology startups including Dropbox, Lyft, and Robinhood.

Nas is a spokesperson and mentor for P'Tones Records, a non-profit after-school music program with the mission "to create constructive opportunities for urban youth through no-cost music programs."

Nas grew up in a Christian Southern Baptist family, and while not directly affiliated with any religious denomination, believes there to be a higher power.

The Berlin Music Video Awards is a festival that promoted the art of music videos.

The Grammy Awards are held annually by the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences. Nas has won one Grammy out of 17 nominations altogether.