Nas: I Don't Understand Hip Hop

With charged poetic lyrics spit in a smooth flow, Nas turned the rap world on its ear in 1994 with the release of ILLMATIC. The immaculate record contained few frills, no skits, no celebrity cameos, just the rapper's deceptively complex rhymes, layered over beats by some of the best producers of the day. Nas quietly released solid records until 2001, when his spirit was revived by a beef with Jay-Z (they would reunite on stage years later). He released the acerbic STILLMATIC, which was followed by a string of critically praised records, but no shortage of controversy. I DON'T UNDERSTAND HIP HOP charts Nas' incredible rise to fame.