New York rapper Nas (real name: Nasir Jones) debuted in 1994 with the album . On this gloomy sounding album he showed to be a very talented rapper, who convincingly spewed his confronting but also poetic lyrics through the microphone. The breakthrough to the general public came in 1996 with the second album . It contained his first Dutch hit If I Ruled The World (with ). The subsequent albums
… and Nastradamus were less well received, partly because Nas started to sound more commercial. He enjoyed his life as a pop star to the fullest, but he lost the fans from the first hour. Fortunately, he takes revenge with his fifth album Stillmatic (a reference to Illmatic?). He raps again as if his life depended on it and the 'poppy' melodies have largely disappeared. Some of the strongest songs are Braveheart Party (a duet with ), Rule (with sample from ) and You're Da Man. Rap fans can take a breath: Nas is 'still matic!' (MvP)more
