Born Nasir Jones in Long Island, N.Y. 1973, young Nas grew up in the infamous Queensbridge housing projects. The then Nasty-Nas made his debut on Main Source's "Live at the BBQ" along with Fatal and Akinyele. His politically charged raps caught the attention of 3rd Bass' MC Serch, who put Nas' "Halftime" on the soundtrack for the film Zebrahead in 1992 and featured him on Serch's classic "Back To the Grill Again" along with Chubb Rock and Red Hot Lover Tone. The young rapper released his debut album, Illmatic, on Columbia Records in 1994. The album received 5 mics, went gold, and Nas was hailed as the next Rakim.
Nas followed that up with the powerful single, "If I Ruled the World" (featuring Lauryn Hill on the hook), and a more commercial, lyrically inferior, full-length LP It Was Written in 1996. The album debuted on the charts at No. 1 and in 1997, Nas teamed up with Foxy Brown, AZ and Nature to form the Firm, which recorded its debut album, The Firm: The Album.
Nas' third album, I Am, was released in April of 1999 on Columbia. Later that month, it hit the top of the album charts, knocking chart stalwarts TLC and Britney Spears down a notch.
Nastradamus, Nas' second album of 1999, was released in late November. Then at the end of 2001, Nas released Stillmatic which was considered by many hip-hop heads as a classic - and was heavily compared to his first album. Then at the end of 2002, God's Son released. Street's Disciple, a double-CD, came out in late 2004. In early 2006 Nas signed with Def Jam, as he would release Hip Hop Is Dead at the end of that year under the label.
Untitled followed in 2008. Initially it was going to be called N****r, except civil rights activists such as Jesse Jackson, Al Sharpton, and media outlet Fox News were outraged, expressing stern disapproval. Jackson called on entertainers to stop using the epithet after comedian Michael Richards controversially used it onstage in late 2006. Controversy escalated as the album's impending release date drew nearer, going as far as to spark rumours that Def Jam was planning to drop Nas unless he changed the title. So to save himself, Nas changed it to Untitled, leaving no proper title for the album!
Sound Files (MP3)
Hero (f/Keri Hilson) - from the album Untitled
Hip Hop Is Dead (f/will.i.am) - from the album Hip Hop Is Dead
Can't Forget About You (f/Chrisette Michele) - from the album Hip Hop Is Dead
Virgo (f/Ludacris & Doug E. Fresh) - from the album Street's Disciple
I Can - from the album God's Son
Made You Look - from the album God's Son
*One Mic - from the album Stillmatic
*Nas Is Like - from the album I Am
If I Ruled The World (f/Lauryn Hill) - from the album It Was Written
The Message - from the album It Was Written
It Ain't Hard To Tell - from the album Illmatic
Life's A B***h (f/AZ) - from the album Illmatic
One Love (f/Q-Tip) - from the album Illmatic
The World Is Yours - from the album Illmatic
N.Y. State Of Mind - from the album Illmatic
Popular Thug (f/Kelis) - from the album The Neptunes Present Clones (by The Neptunes)
NB: MP3s with a * next to it indicates that it is located on another server. Reason being is because these MP3s exceed 5 MB and Geocities (the web host for this site) will not accept MP3s over 5 MB. These MP3s are located under the server Angelfire. So in order to download MP3s that are under this server, you must left click once on the name of the MP3 that you want to download, which will take you onto a different page (because it is on a different server, and Geocities do not allow direct links to files located on other servers) and then either left click (if you want to download the MP3 but do not want to save it) or right click, then "Save Target As..." (if you want to the save the MP3) on the name of the MP3 that you want to listen to. Easy as...
