Nas’ favourite New York rap albums of the 1990s
As a Queens rapper through and through, Nas was a true rep of the East Coast.
He personally had a claim to being the greatest New York rapper around throughout the 1990s, and he would be many people’s pick to wear that particular crown. But the man himself understand it wasn’t just about him. He respected the greatest of his peers and competitors.
That is reflected in his pick of favourite rap albums from the ’90s, which he listed to Complex in 2012. As for the East Coast artists he mentioned, Nas highlighted fellow New Yorkers Kool G Rap & DJ Polo, whose 1990 album Dead or Alive left a huge mark on him.
Noting that Kool G took “the lyric level to the highest level it can go,” he described his style as being like “bloody chainsaws fighting each other.” Which, despite the violence of the metaphor, or perhaps because of it, he meant as a compliment.
Canada even got a shout-out from Nas, as he mentioned that Main Source’s album from ’91, Breaking Atoms, was a big favourite. Main Source were made up of members from both New York and Toronto, so they certainly belong in the East Coast camp.
A Tribe Called Quest deeply affected Nas with The Low End Theory in 1991. While their debut, People’s Instinctive Travels and the Paths of Rhythm, had been “crazy,” in Nas’ words, its follow-up in ’91 took their sound to “a broader audience” and “just took everybody by storm.” Nas loved it.
While Nas has had his issues with Jay-Z through the years, he has always respected his skills. He loved Jay’s ’96 album Reasonable Doubt, in which he felt Hov “staked his claim” and “showed everyone he was nice with his lyrics.”
“He came in the tradition of the New York streets, the way I did, the way Biggie did,” Nas said of Jay. “He came in that way and he’s been holding it down ever since.”
Nas obviously loved The Notorious BIG, too, especially his Life After Death album. He felt Biggie “rapped from a perspective of someone who lived a full life” on it, despite having been killed so young only weeks before its release. Biggie, Nas believes, was “honestly one of the greatest to ever do it.”