Born in the mid-nineties I grew up on Lil Wayne, Eminem, Jay-Z, 50 Cent, G-Unit, The Game, Snoop Dogg and many more talented artists. I began listening to the hip-hop and rap genre right after 2Pac, Biggie, and Nas were in their prime.
I was fed the early 2000’s hip-hop and rap artists, but it left out a lot of the talented artists that I mentioned above. I feel like the only way to really get a grasp on the artists in the late 80’s and 90’s would be to go back and explore. I’ve done that with many different legends including 2Pac, Biggie, Nas, Big L, and others. I’ve watched numerous documentaries, interviews and movies based around them.
Recently, I developed a brief interest in what Riker’s Island was like. For those of you that don’t know, Riker’s Island is New York City’s main jail complex, which has one road in and one road out to the island. After watching videos on Riker’s Island, I fell into looking up the project housing around New York. While briefly reading into it and learning about the different neighborhoods around the city, I stumbled upon a few different short clips of Nasir (NAS) Jones. I found out there was a documentary film made in 2014 focusing on the early part of Nas’ career and the journey to where he is now.
Titled Nas: Time is Illmatic the documentary brings viewers to Queensbridge, New York City, which is considered to be the largest public housing development in the country. This area, notorious for producing hip-hop and rap legends, was where Nas began his career. After dropping out of middle school, his father believed in working on a “craft” and encouraged Nas and his brother to do what they wanted. That was when Nas continued forward with his passion for music.
In his early days of rapping, the city of New York became sort of a battlefield; Nas was up against Jay-Z, who was on one end of the city promoting his area. KRS-One was on the other end of the city promoting his side and there were numerous other artists in the area looking to establish themselves as the best MC’s in New York.
What sparked an interest looking into Nas was his life in the projects and how he came from nothing. I felt he was underrated and underappreciated as a rapper and in my eyes, he was a pioneer for hip-hop and rap itself. This documentary opened my eyes to the fact that everything he did had meaning and value.
Nas tells stories about his best friends passing or getting incarcerated. He talked about the feud with Jay-Z, or how African-American men were misrepresented in the justice system and more. Nasir Jones was out there to make something happen and refused to be another statistic.
The hour-long documentary film, Nas: Time is Illmatic, is a must watch for any hip-hop and rap connoisseur.
