Why We Love H.E.R. Volume 1: Nas – The Message
Feb5
It should be of no surprise to those familiar with my music that I’m a huge Nas fan. I grew up on Wu-Tang and A Tribe Called Quest, but Nas is the person that made me want to be an emcee. My introduction to Nas was It Was Written, Affirmative Action was the song memory serves me. For me, It Was Written was Nas’ best album. Maybe not the most consistent, but its peaks surpass Illmatic in my opinion. The only real misstep was Nas Is Coming, hurt by a mediocre Dr Dre beat. Everything else is at the very least solid, at its best magnificent. And here’s how he starts the album off after an intro where he’s the slave that starts a rebellion:
Nas – The Message
Fake thug, no love, you get the slug, CB4 Gusto
Your luck low, I didn’t know til I was drunk though
You freak niggaz played out, get fucked and ate out
Prostitute turned bitch, I got the gauge out
Are you peeping these internal, multiple, and multisyllabic rhymes? “thug, love, slug”, “gusto, luck low, drunk though”, “played out, ate out, gauge out”. Plus he referenced the best movie about fake thug rappers, CB4 and its main character, MC Gusto. Nas clearly isn’t happy with somebody…
96 ways I made out, Montana way
The Good-F-E-L-L-A, verbal AK spray
Dipped attache, jumped out the Range, empty out the ashtray
A glass of ‘ze make a man Cassius Clay
Finishing the multisyllabic rhyming with “made out”. Nas calls himself a mobster by referencing to two of the best crime movies in history, Scarface (whose main character was Tony Montana) and Goodfellas. Don’t forget this album helped usher in Mafioso Rap. I’m not sure who he’s talking about in the last line. He was just now talking about himself, so he could be saying that liquor (specifically Alize) makes him ready for war. But since that’s a little self-depracating, and since no man should ever admit to drinking Alize, more likely he’s saying that corny people get a little liquor in them and think they’re untouchable all of the sudden. (Cassius Clay being Muhammad Ali’s given name, and he being arguably the best boxer in history, people wish they were as good as him.)
Red dot plots, murder schemes, thirty-two shotguns
Regulate wit my Dunn’s, 17 rocks gleam from one ring
Yo let me let y’all niggaz know one thing
There’s one life, one love, so there can only be one King
Peep the internal rhyme from “schemes” to “gleams” in the first 2 lines, and how it ends up being the ending rhyme for the last 3 bars. Stuff like this is how we know that Olu Dara may have birthed Nas, but Rakim is surely his father. Anyway at the end the topic of this verse is revealed at last. There can only be one King. No one says that with the intention of naming someone else king. Therefore Nas is proclaiming himself as King. Of what, you ask? Of New York hip-hop! Who’s the pretender to the throne, none other than the Notorious BIG.
History lesson: Big and Nas had a little beef, seemingly because Big and Rakewon had beef. Read about it here
The highlights of livin, Vegas style roll dice in linen
Antera spinnin on Milleniums, twenty G bets I’m winnin them
Threats I’m sendin them, Lex with TV sets the minimum
Ill sex adrenaline
Party with villians, a case of Demi-Sec to chase the Henny
Wet any clique, with the semi-tech who want it
Diamonds I flaunt it, chickenheads flock I lace em
Fried broiled with basil, taste em, crack the legs
way out of formation, it’s horizontal how I have em
fuckin me in the Benz wagon
Can it be Vanity from Last Dragon
If you don’t know who Vanity from Last Dragon is, you need to go check that movie. Go do it now, don’t come back till you start telling your friends to call you Bruce Leroy. Hood classic!
Grab your gun it’s on though
Shit is grimy, real niggaz buck in broad daylight
with the broke Mac it won’t spray right
Don’t give a fuck who they hit, as long as the drama’s lit
Yo, overnight thugs, bug cause they ain’t promised shit
Hungry-ass hooligans stay on that piranha shit
After declaring himself king, Nas descends into describing his Mafioso life. Don’t miss the incredible rhyming in the first 4 bars after the king line. Content-wise, nothing too special here, just flossing and fast broads, but Nas ends with a reminder that there’s a price for this life. And that price is gunplay and its consequences, including innocent bystanders and a heightened chance of that violence being visited upon you, everyday. The second-from-the-last line is a shot at people who pretend to be thugs because they want that flashy life but forgot about this price, and is probably aimed at Biggie as well.
I’d planned on doing the rest of the song, but just this one verse led me to writing 500 words. And the second verse, while ill, doesn’t hold a candle to this one in my opinion. So I’ll end this here. Feel free to leave all praise, hate, constructive criticism, suggestions, and comments.
By the way, leave all feedback ON THIS BLOG. You don’t have to sign up to comment, and I’d like all the discussion to happen here.
~Knowledge The Rhyme-Professor
