Late last year, Queensbridge rapper Nas released not one but two albums. Still a prolific musician, he first released King’s Disease 2 to much critical acclaim. After this, he proceeded to put out Magic. On Magic, the Queensbridge emcee persistently reminded listeners to acknowledge his status as one of the greats. On several tracks, such as ‘Meet Joe Black’ and ’40-16′, Nas directly calls out to rappers telling them to up their levels.
On the track, ‘Wu for the Children,’ the rapper (real name Nasir Jones) reflected on his past and aspirations for the future as an emcee. On the song, Jones raps, “Listen to The Manhattan’s, Queens to Brooklyn, oh what a feelin’/ I shoulda had Grammy’s when Ol’ Dirty said ‘Wu for the children.'”
While looking back down memory lane, Jones even referenced his old-school counterparts, Jay-Z and Biggie. However, Nas also gave some shoutouts to newer artists. In particular, Jones highlighted Drake, J. Cole, and Kendrick Lamar, crediting them as the greatest rappers of this generation.
On ‘Wu For The Children’ the rapper makes the comparison between the three with him Biggie and Jay-Z as he states, “Shoulda did that remix verse on ‘Gimme the Loot’ for Biggie / Me, JAY-Z, and Frank White is like Cole, Drizzy, and Kenny.” Now with his own podcast named, The Bridge: 50 Years, Nas revealed his classic song ‘Hip-Hop is Dead’ was largely directed at New York rappers.
“I didn’t think that certain people would think I’m talking about them,” he began. “Oh nah, I’m talking about mainly New York! Mainly New York. I’m talking to everybody, but I didn’t explain it thoroughly enough.” You can listen to ‘Wu For The Children’ in the video below.
