1995 When Hip Hop's Illest MC's Were Born

NaS
My favorite Nasty Nas track ever. How can you phase the line, "Cause I'm a Nike Head, I wear chains that excite the feds," you can't fuck with lines like that.



Jay-Z



When BIG and Pac died, no one knew where Hip Hop was going to go, in NaS' words, Hip Hop was Dead for those two years 96 & 97. They were two young, different rappers that stepped into the game to be great, not to make money. They spit every word, bar, hook, verse, and song, to near perfection. Every line created a metaphor that made you think and put it together. No one new who to look to after BIG and Pac died. Jay was leading the way for a while with hit after hit. But NaS wasn't the mainstream artist Jay was but stayed to his ill lyrics which people shunned away from and more towards the radio hits. This is where Hip Hop started to become more commercialized. This is what hurt Hip Hop. Jay adjusted to the need for hits, NaS didn't. When two New York rappers are striving to be great and see one another next to each other there's going to be that competitive nature to be best, thats all it was. How do rappers show they are better, murdering each other on wax. They conceived the Nas Jay Beef. Rap beefs were light before the Big & Pac beef. But now there were more people involved, it wasn't one on one, more like thousands against thousands. And it went too far. But its funny how these two NY MC's grabbed the torch. And to its funny to me, because their beef and competitiveness put them at the top of Hip Hop. There beef never got violent due to the fact that they learned from the BIG and Pac beef, they kept it strictly on wax. If you think of it, where would these two rappers be if Pac and BIG were still alive. Would they still be at the top where they are now. Would they be the ones leading the way? Or would they be following? And if you look at it are these young cats coming up with the same hunger that these two showed when they broke in the game, the only three I can think of in recent years, The Game, 5o Cent, & Kanye. Who else is striving to be great, nevermind that, I mean a legend. Where is the hunger to make music and not money? When NaS and Jay are gone, who is going to step up and lead Hip Hop. To me I don't see anyone close . . .