The one rapper Nas credits for shaping rap music: “It checked me as an MC”
Nas is considered to be one of the greatest rappers of his generation, but, from his own point of view, one of his peers was arguably more important.
As part of a feature for XXL in 2013, Nas reviewed Lauryn Hill’s 1998 classic The Miseducation Of Lauryn Hill album—and he was effusive about it. Hill, whom Nas has collaborated with, was so good on her debut solo album that she forced him to take stock of his own work from that time.
“There’s always a void when it comes to the female MC world, and she went beyond that,” Nas wrote of Hill in the review. “It checked me as an MC because she was pure. There was no chains, no fancy cars—she checked us on all of that.”
Nas, who was criticised by some for moving away from the socially conscious content of his early music to embrace more materialistic, gangsta rap themes, was moved to reflect on his own thematic concerns when Miseducation dropped. She wasn’t dealing with gangsta idea, as he had begun to do, and her album was all the better for it.
Nas understood Miseducation to be a true classic, comparable to the work of older greats. “To me it was like the soul of Roberta Flack, the passion of Bob Marley, the essence of Aretha Franklin, Michael Jackson and the essence of hip-hop wrapped up in one thing,” he said. “All that was inside that album.”
Nas was especially impressed by the way that Hill dealt with the subject of love on the album. “It made me wonder, ‘How the hell does this person know about love the way she’s singing about it?’” Nas pondered. “She sang about love and betrayal and hurt and rejoicing and happiness and joy like someone who’s been here longer than she had.”
Characterising Miseducation as a “timeless record, pure music,” Nas lamented that albums like that are rare things. “She didn’t have to fit in with any style,” he said. “She was the new style, and it’s a positive style.”
Nas claimed that The Miseducation Of Lauryn Hill was “a serious moment in Black music,” when the work of Black people came to be properly appreciated by the mainstream. “It cleared the way for rap music to be what it is today,” he said. “We demanded that the whole world pay attention, so the music had to be that dynamic, and she represents that. She was one of the soldiers in that mission. Before then, it was in its place.”
As Nas sees it, Miseducation is “one of those records that you need,” every bit as important as works by legends like Bob Marley and Stevie Wonder. It was, for him, the stand-out record of Nas and Hill’s generation.