The 50 Best Nas Verses

We count down the best 16s from God's Son.

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Complex Original

Image via Complex Original

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If there's ever been a rap artist as celebrated for his lyrics as Nasir Jones, we haven't heard him. 

Whether you were there from "Live at the BBQ" or jumped on board with Illmatic, whether you were first exposed when "Oochie Wally" hit radio or when he beefed with Jay-Z, Nas has always been known first and foremost as a lyricist.

He's a rapper with—and this is no slight—a pretty narrow range of subjects. The true variety and inspired storytelling he's managed to wring from such a thin band of topics (death, violence, success) is no small feat. He's adept at navigating the relationship between the concrete and the spiritual, the streets and psychology, the real and the mythological. It's to his credit that, even when telling a story, it has a gritty, hard-nosed realism that few peers can match.

And even then, sometimes, when he flipped the script entirely, Nas was still making rap verses well out of the range of the typical MC. What follows is the best of the best: The greatest rhymes from the canon of a rap artist who will forever rank amongst the genre's best. The 50 Best Nas Verses.

RELATED: 50 Things You Didn't Know About Nas
RELATED: The 100 Best Nas Songs

RELATED: Nas' 25 Favorite Albums

50. Wu-Tang Clan f/ Nas "Let My Niggas Live" (2000)

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Album: The W
Verse: N/A
Best Line: "The only nigga Sade dated."

Unfortunately, Nas took a little of the bite out of the verse's best line when he admitted he never actually dated Sade. But this was still a Nas guest spot par excellence, if only for its visceral energy. It almost feels modeled on his original breakthrough guest spot from "Live at the BBQ," when he went to hell for "snuffin' Jesus." Now Nas is running up in the black church with his gun in hand threatening people to try him. The imagery is some of his most graphic, from the snot in the nostrils of dope fiends to the stiffened bodies and some rather graphic sex scenes. Other than his Sade boast (and its echoes of "I have a girlfriend in Canada"), Nas' best line is one that hints at the motivations that drive this entire setting, and the accompanying existential emptiness: "The oxygen is cocaine, it drove lots of men to die with no name."

49. Nas "Nazareth Savage" (2004)

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Album: Street's Disciple
Verse: Verse 1
Best Line: "I had bad chicks that blow cum bubbles like bubblegum."

Street's Disciple may be one of Nas' weaker albums (it's just too self-indulgent) but that didn't mean it didn't have joints on it. One of those cuts is "Nazareth Savage" where Nas was out to prove he could still spit after being in the game over 10 years. And with an absolutely disgusting opening line like, "I had bad chicks that blow cum bubbles like bubblegum," it was a reminder they didn't call him "Nasty Nas" for nothing.

48. Nas "Got Ur Self A" (2001)

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Album: Stillmatic
Verse: Verse 1
Best Line: "My first album had no famous guest appearances/The outcome, I'm crowned the best lyricist."
After Jay-Z sent shots at Nas on "The Takeover," it became evident that Stillmatic was going to be a proving ground for the latter rapper; Nastradamus has the worst reputation, at this point, of any of his records, and many hip-hop fans felt he'd fallen off. "Got Ur Self..." was Stillmatic's second single, and was widely considered a return to form. The opening lines assert the rapper's place in history, placing him in the hallowed lineage of Pac and Biggie. Steeped in violence, the song was an opening volley in what would become the rapper's comeback.

47. Capone-N-Noreaga f/ Tragedy Khadafi & Nas "Calm Down" (1997)

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46. Nas f/ Lauryn Hill "If I Ruled the World" (1996)

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Album: It Was Written
Verse: Verse 3
Best Line: "Watch the blimp read, 'The World Is Mine.'"

Although we don't get why despite ruling the world Nas dreams of cooking coke, it's still hard not to fall in love with this song. Nas' lyricism is the hands down best here but it doesn't have to be. This wasn't the moment for Nas to flex his lyrical skills, everyone already knew he could rap. However, they doubted he could make a pop hit but this song proved everyone wrong. Nas made a hit record that was true to his style and still got heavy radio airplay. The only part we couldn't get behind was freeing every prisoner and sending them to Africa. Dude, WTF would that solve?

45. Nas "NY State of Mind Pt. 2" (1999)

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Album: I Am...
Verse: Verse 1
Best Line: "All I got left in the end is two of my best friends / And we all goin out, to the death for these ends."

Nas went back to the same conceptual ground for "New York State of Mind Pt. 2." This time, he was much more descriptive; whereas the original version was full of action, the sequel was heavy on the details, the "overcrowded cribs, uncles home from bids," and "piss-infested" beds. The verse ends as he watches his crew disintegrates; two die, then the numbers continue to dwindle. By the time they're down to four, one of his friends flips on the crew; they beat him, leaving three left, "going to the death for these ends."

44. Nas "One Time For Your Mind" (1994)

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Album: Illmatic
Verse: Verse 2
Best Line: "I wreck shit so much, the microphone'll need a paint job."

"One Time For Your Mind" is the least celebrated cut on Illmatic, yet the rhymes are still nothing to sleep on. It isn't extraordinary but it does have a young Nas describing his writing process: "My pen rides the paper, it even has blinkers/Think I'll dim the lights then inhale, it stimulates/Floating like I'm on the North 95 Interstate/Never plan to stop, when I write my hand is hot." We bet.

43. Nas "The Foulness (1-4)" (1996)

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Album: N/A
Verse: Part 2 ("More Bounce to the Ounce")
Best Line: "Where Money Mike at, with the shades on and the nightcap?/ Mistakenly, they shot up his car, he died like that."

"The Foulness" was a series of freestyles released through DJ Clue in '96 over several different instrumentals; one of the best was a harrowing morality tale about the ill-fated Tommy Gun Dunn and his business partner Money Mike.

42. Nas f/ R. Kelly "Street Dreams (Remix)" (1996)

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Album: It Was Written
Verse: Verse 2
Best Line: "I wish some of these killings could be prevented/Whatever happens it was written, meaning god meant it."

The "Street Dreams (Remix)" took one of R. Kelly's greatest hooks from a period when he was at a level of great commercial success, but wed it to a non-album remix with particularly dense and poignant lyrics. Each verse found the rapper starting with the concrete and ending with more existential concerns; verse two starts with particularly evocative imagery and ominous foreshadowing as Nas stands on a street corner covered by dark clouds; he's arrested, and the Judge instructs him to get a job; he tries to school younger kids but they can't see past tomorrow. He ends the verse meditating on his own philosophical approach: "During your life you put your heart in it / even if it seems like we're being targeted."

41. Nas f/ Ron Isley "Project Windows" (1999)

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40. Nas "Purple" (2002)

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Album: Lost Tapes
Verse: Verse 1
Best Line: "May the ghost leave a body, now they hauntin' the block"

When you see friends and foes alike getting gunned down needlessly, only to have the cycle repeat, you search for an escape. The "Purple" of the title refers to the highest of escapes, and it's what's got to be done when death is all around. The first verse stands out because it's Nas in a rare emotional state: defeated. There's not so much rage as there is morbid acceptance when he spits about his dudes from his hood in jail or worse, and what little it all accomplishes. By the end of the verse, his form of escape feels more and more vital.

39. Nas "Small World" (1999)

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Album: I Am...
Verse: Verse 3
Best Line: "He was live - do niggas even know the things that he tried? Robbed armored trucks - incidents where po-lice died."

Death is a frequent subject for Nas, to the point of obsession; "Small World" is a story about two people, the ruthless Carolyn and hapless Snook. The third verse tells the story of how Nas learns from Snook's mistakes: recognizing that he could be the next target, and identifying who has the strongest bond with Carolyn, he makes the pre-emptive move: "Shit is cool now, but put the tools down? Never / because everyday is on, livin' this life, out for this cheddar."

38. Nas "Money Over Bullshit" (2006)

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Album: Hip-Hop Is Dead
Verse: Verse 3
Best Line: "Antique pieces, Mona Lisa's, own no leases."

There's something so satisfying about hearing Nas stack syllables. Maybe lines like, "I don't have to blast mine/They blast mine, black nine, you flatline/My cash climb," aren't the most original idea a rapper has conveyed, but boy do they sound good. Trust, the economy of words in bars are those are recession proof.

37. Kool G Rap f/ Nas "Fast Life" (1995)

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Album: 4,5,6
Verse: N/A
Best Line: "Yo I got guns from Italy, smoke trees considerably."

The sounds of Surface's late-'80s R&B hit "Happy" sound more enigmatic and ethereal than the song's title suggests. A baton pass from the elder Kool G Rap to Nas, "Fast Life" marked one in a growing number of moments where Nas' scope shifted from the everday street corner to a more mythic, widescreen-cinematic perspective. The song begins with a Scarface sample and a verse from G Rap, and ends with him and Nas exchanging bars. In the middle, though, is one of Nas' finest verses, the connection between the streets and wealth and success: "The ghetto misery, shootouts and liquors stores / perpendicular angle of a clout war." And all the wealth built on top of that misery: "poppin' cristal like it's my first child," "twenty-four carats counting cabbage," "Lex bubble, full insurance." In his own success ("The marriage of me and the mic is just like magic,") he sees a parallel in the lives of the gangsters he shouts out at the track's conclusion.

36. Nas "Poppa Was a Playa" (2002)

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Album: Lost Tapes
Verse: Verse 2
Best Line: "What's this white shit on that plate and your face?"

While rappers like Jay-Z made songs about his missing dad and Eminem dreamed of murdering his father, Nas has always had a relatively positive relationship with his pops, Olu Dara. Like Nas, Olu was a musician and, as evidenced by this song, was never a perfect person. But rather than come of as bitter and angry, Nas is mature and forgiving of what seems to be his father's many transgression, namely his cocaine use and adultery. Nas only briefly details the scene but we only imagine the awkward excuses we'd have to give to our kids when they caught us with coke and our pants down. "See, what had happened was..."

35. Nas "Star Wars" (2004)

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Album: 12-Inch Single Release
Verse: Verse 1
Best Line: "It's shocking you thinking 'naw it's just rhyming,' nut all this time it's like organized criming."

Sadly, Nas isn't directly referencing "Star Wars" on here, but the first verse demonstrates what exactly made him a star in the first place. He's relating to the so-called common man, filling him in on the reality of hip-hop: it's as street as it is glamorous. For all the "drinks with umbrellas," there's a moment when rhyming is just "organized criming." Be careful what you wish for, as the saying goes, but at the end, we're not left with a regretful Nas. He knows there's power in hip-hop, even if it's being treated like the streets too often.

34. Nas "Halftime" (1992)

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Album: Illmatic
Verse: Verse 1
Best Line: "You couldn't catch me in the streets with out a ton of reefer/That's like Malcolm X catchin' the jungle fever."

First released in 1992, a full two years prior to Illmatic, "Halftime" landed on the Zebrahead soundtrack A&R'd by MC Serch. As an introduction to the man then known as "Nasty Nas," the song joined Main Source's "Live at the Barbecue" in creating buzz for the emerging rapper. Musically, it ain't hard to tell why it was such an impressive introduction; the song balanced playful, buoyant wordplay over an obstacle course of syllables that had an almost celebratory fluency. While verse two was the larger, more exuberant passage, verse one was the tightest and most impressive. It established who he was and what he came to do: Nike-head, reefer addict, from the 40-side of Queens, he had the mad fat fluid when he rhymed at "Halftime."

33. Nas "Shootouts" (1996)

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Album: It Was Written
Verse: Verse 2
Best Line: "We breeze, jump in the ride, heard Pierre died/Internal bleedin' inside, and ain't been back since '95."

One of Nas' most underrated verses was a story track that told about a Queensbridge barbecue that ends in drama. After a hustler named Frank (some have argued this was a sublminal at The Notorious B.I.G., aka Frank White, although this feels like something of a stretch) loses a Rolex's worth of money in a dice game, he calls on his shooter Pierre; a conflict breaks out, the police arrive; the narrator and his crew "dip behind the trees in fatigues and squeeze," covertly shooting at Frank and Pierre while the police do the same. The story ends with the narrator discovering that Pierre was killed; the narrator never again returned to Queensbridge.

32. Nas "Take It in Blood" (1996)

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Album: It Was Written
Verse: Verse 1
Best Line: "MC's are crawling out every hole in the slum/You be alright like blood money in a pimp's cum."

Nas would define his persona through a swirl of imagery, a perfect example of a rapper who understood the writer's rule of show-don't-tell. His girls don't just sniff coke; they do so off "a twenty-cent Andrew Jackson." From the city lights sparking a New York night to the very vehicles (M3's and Kawasakis) his crew rides, each piece of the puzzle paints a provocative picture, before landing the verse with a particularly striking image.

31. Nas "2nd Childhood" (2001)

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Album: Stillmatic
Verse: Verse 2
Best Line: "So he moves with his peers, different blocks, different years / Sittin on, different benches like it's musical chairs."

On the second verse of the Primo-produced "2nd Childhood," Nas tells the story of a thirty-one year old dude in the hood, home from jail and dicking around as if he was still a teenager. He's living at home with his mom and stealing money from her, hanging out in the same spots he did as a youth, smoking Ls and slinging drugs, with no ambition. It's a sad tale of immaturity, but Nas wonders, "It's fun to him, right?" Not necessarily.

30. Large Professor f/ Nas "One Plus One" (1996)

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Album: The LP
Verse: N/A
Best Line: "Hardly able to chill night ills feeling slight chills / finding out that rich nigga got to write wills."


For Large Professor's first LP to get an actual release, Nas dropped a memorable verse about how he sees his role, as a voice for his friends who never made it out of the hood, whether through imprisonment or death. He tells them they can live vicariously through him, and talks about some of the perks of his new wealth, before offering the flipside of those gains, the real costs that come with success.

29. Nas "Undying Love" (1999)

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Album: I Am...
Verse: Verse 1
Best Line: "Cherry scented candles was lit, couldn't handle the shit"

The gut punch that ends Nas's third album comes in the form of an affair. Nas weaves the story of coming back from a trip to Vegas (unsurprisingly, a place that he hated) only to find his girl cheating on him. The first verse tells of that moment, before the tragedy of the second one, and it's all the more powerful for not knowing how it ends. He's back in New York, back in his home, and suddenly everything gets flipped. Welcome back, Nas.

28. Nas f/ Capone, Cormega, Marley Marl, MC Shan, Mobb Deep, Nas, Nature, Tragedy Khadafi and Millennium Thug "Da Bridge 2001" (2000)

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Album: Nas and Ill Will Presents Queensbridge the Album
Verse: N/A
Best Line: "Jaws is broke, your whole crew is coffin bound"

Pretty much every person ever is on "Da Bridge 2001," but no one shines like Nasty Nas does hitting cleanup. Taking shots at both Memphis Bleek and his usual nemesis Jay-Z, God's Son goes in repping for his hood. The run of rhymes in the middle of his verse plays to the fact that sometimes Nas is underrated in terms of rapping technique, but here he swerves his way around the beat to drop some quick one-liners. He guns for the whole Rocafella family, and nails it in the way that only he can.

27. Fat Joe f/ Nas, Big Pun, Jadakiss and Raekwon "John Blaze" (1998)

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Album: Don Cartagena
Verse: N/A
Best Line: "Between Latin Kings the Bloods los sangres, blood in Spanish"

Queensbridge, the 1995 movie Dead Presidents, and the whole Spanish language get a shout-out on Nas's show-stealing feature on "John Blaze." Filled to the brim with swagger, the verse hits on Nas's rep as the best, before showing why: Few rappers, alive or dead, can weave humor and history like this. One can only be thankful that he put his #2 pencil to work on lyrics, rather than tests.

26. Jay-Z f/ Nas "Success" (2007)

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Album: American Gangster
Verse: N/A
Best Line: "Worst enemies want to be my best friends."
Nas had his fair share of hot lines in his second collaboration with Jay-Z, "Success," but none was better than mentioning Jay's overtures to friendship in the very song you recorded with him. To Nas, that's not all that success brings; he's "Google Earth Nas," with "flats in other continents," and even the imprisoned friends mentioned in "One Love" from Illmatic come home to "paper in hand."

25. Nas "Made U Look" (2002)

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Album: God's Son
Verse: Verse 1
Best Line: "Don't say my cars topless, say the titties is out."

Few things in this world are more hip-hop than the "Apache" breakbeat-it's the kind of record that probably rang out in early hip-hop parties in Queensbridge when Nas was a child, thus inspiring his career. The park jam atmosphere the beat resonated gave way to Nas' loose rhymes as he sounds like he's narrating a block party. His rhymes aren't incredibly dense and intricate, but that's the thing: They don't always have to be. Sometimes, you just want to hear one of the greatest rap voices ever sporting a white tee, sipping Grey Goose, and having a good time.

24. AZ f/ Nas "Mo Money, Mo Murder" (1995)

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Album: Doe or Die
Verse: Verse 1
Best Line: "Yo, in a mahogany, black scenery."

It's always something special when Nas and AZ get together and "Mo Money, Mo Murder" is no different. The song finds the two rappers trading eight bar verses but for someone like Nas, sometimes it only takes eight bars to set up a scene so perfectly where Nas is tied up in a basement over his fast life ventures. The beat, the song, and Nas' descriptions are all downright cinematic, even if they're a bit hard to follow on an initial listen.

23. Nas "Daughters" (2012)

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Album: Life Is Good
Verse: Verse 2
Best Line: "A box of condoms on her dresser then she Instagram'd it."

Nas has always been a great story teller and lyricist but he hasn't always revealed too much about himself. He did a lot on his early work ("Aiming guns in all my baby pictures") but then moved away from acute personal details in his later work. That's why "Daughters" hits so hard, it hits close to home with Nas not only openly discussing his relationship with his daughter. Blogs had already picked up on his daughter posting pictures of condoms on Instagram so you knew what he was saying was true. Nas wasn't always a soul bearing artist (a la Eminem) but throughout Life Is Good he kept it one hundred.

22. Nas "On The Real" (2004)

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Album: 12-Inch Single Release
Verse: Verse 3
Best Line: "You see the kid was broke 'til I spitted vivid expressions of hard livin, ghetto children, of a lesser God."

It's a wonder when this song was actually recorded and if the verses are indeed from the Illmatic era or were just written by a reinvigorated Nas, but regardless. It's impossible to choose the best verse here since all three verses have great highlights ("You're marked for death like Colombians with bad coke that gyp niggas") as well as vivid expression of hard living. Nas rides Marley Marl's hazy piano loop perfectly and the song captures that vague feeling the best Nas record conjure: Just another day in the projects where life is celebrated with parties on the corner just as much as it's thrown away with gun violence.

21. Nas "Doo Rags" (2002)

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Album: Lost Tapes
Verse: Verse 3
Best Line: "My heart and my lungs was affected from Henny's and getting blunted."

Nas' verses tend to wander. Often times, his thoughts hops and skip from line to line, not always carrying an idea out to its conclusion even though his throaty voice and nimble wordplay can make throwaway ideas seem like fully formed concepts. The third verse of "Doo Rags" is a happy departure from that. For once, Nas' thoughts follow a linear sequence. He starts off talking about doo-rags, moves on to jail, discusses God, before moving on to healthy living. Okay, maybe it's not that linear, but the transitions certainly help.

20. Nas "Queens Get The Money" (2008)

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19. Rick Ross f/ Nas "Triple Beam Dreams" (2012)

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Album: Rich Forever
Verse: N/A
Best Line: "I would be Ivy League if America played fair, poor excuse"

Nas's verse on "Triple Beam Dreams" is a rare occurrence of the man recognizing when he had failed. The verse tells the story of his ultimately left-behind drug dealer phase, leading us to the place where he would drop that and become the MC of today. He's not regretful of his decisions, but as he grows older, Nas gets that it had to be that way for him to hit his peak as a person and especially as a rapper. Can't say we disagree.

18. Nas "Memory Lane (Sittin' In Da Park)" (1994)

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Album: Illmatic
Verse: Verse 1
Best Line: "I rap for listeners, blunt heads, fly ladies and prisoners."

"Memory Lane (Sittin' In Da Park)" isn't just one of Nas' best songs, the song's title is probably the best way to describe Nas' style. At his best, Nas is often reflecting on his childhood, making him a of purveyor of a romanticized (but also brutalized) notion of ghetto living. Although the first verse of this song doesn't start off that way, it gradually shifts into that mold as Nas recalls days with chocolate blunts and sipping Cognac with an eye out for jakes in a Blue Chrysler. It's like that ya'll.

17. Nas "One Mic" (2002)

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Album: Stillmatic
Verse: Verse 1
Best Line: "This is my hood, I'ma rep til the death of it, 'til everybody come home."

On Stillmatic, Nas was reaching a point where he needed to prove himself on an artistic level; plenty of people appreciated his move to the clubs (don't forget, "Oochie Wally" was a legitimate hit) but the fans of the rapper's more esoteric side were getting restless. "One Mic" was a conceptual track that relied on a steady build-up of pressure, and verse one was its most impressive moment. The verse begins with Nas himself, then shifts into character; someone on a street corner, willing to martyr himself for his neighborhood. As always, its the details in Nas' verses that make his songs come to life: the fiend dropping his Heineken, bullets ricocheting. And then the moments of spirtual reflection, given a particular immediacy by his urgent delivery.

16. Nas "Represent" (1994)

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Album: Illmatic
Verse: Verse 2
Best Line: "The type of nigga who be pissing in your elevator."

Even in '94 when Illmaticfirst dropped and was hailed as a classic people were already saying the hook to "Represent" was a bit corny and outdated. But no one was fronting on these verses. On the second verse, Nas-the self-proclaimed "Moet drinking, marijuana smoking street dweller"-basically puts on for himself, describing a day in the life in the QB projects.

Our favorite line might have been the elevator one, but the most famous is probably, "Somehow the rap game reminds me of the crack game." The line was later sampled by Jay-Z on "Rap Game/Crack Game" and was essentially the entire concept of that song. It just went to show that despite Jay's later retort of "You made it a hot line, I made it a hot song" on "Takeover" (which is also a reference to another Jay-Z song that samples Nas, "Dead Presidents") Jigga was so enamored with Nas' rhymes he was willing to flesh out ideas casually thrown out by Nas. Even lines from songs that were perceived as one of Illmatic's "weaker" cuts.

15. Mobb Deep f/ Nas & Raekwon "Eye for an Eye" (1995)

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14. Nas "Last Real Nigga Alive" (2002)

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Album: God's Son
Verse: Verse 1
Best Line: "Big told me Rae was stealing my slang/And Rae told me out in Shaolin, Big would do the same thing."

Throughout the '90s, there was much speculation about beef between Nas and Jay-Z before "Takeover"/"Ether" removed all speculation. Meanwhile, there were quite rumblings about a possible beef between Nas and Biggie but that was overshadowed by Big's beef with you know who. Once Big was dead, all the subliminal shots on records seemed petty but rap historians were still interested to know.

On "Last Real Nigga Alive," Nas exposed all the behind the scenes happenings of '90s East Coast rap. Nas admitted "Kick In The Door" was aimed at him (as was long speculated) but also revealed how he was in the middle of the Raekwon/Biggie beef. It's mesmerizing hearing someone speak so candidly about stories that are often regulated to rumors and industry gossip. However, for all of Nas' candor, a bit of his muster was lost when he rhymed in the second verse, "There's some ghetto secrets I can't rhyme in this song/There's some missing pieces I had to leave out." We can only imagine what.

13. Nas f/ AZ "Life's a Bitch" (1994)

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Album: Illmatic
Verse: N/A
Best Line: "That buck that bought a bottle could've struck the lotto."

Nas only invited one rapper to contribute a verse to his debut album-AZ-and he made sure not to get murdered on his own shit by him. His boy from Brooklyn made quite an impression, basically earning himself a record deal off the appearance, but Nas' birthday bars were on another level, and earned him placement in the coveted "Rhyme of the Month" column in The Source. He raps, "I woke up early on my born day, I'm 20 it's a blessing/The essence of adolescence leaves my body, now I'm fresh and/My physical frame is celebrated 'cause I made it/One-quarter through life, some godly like thing created."

Nas matures into manhood on this verse, and after reminiscing about "robbing foreigners," he decides to take a new outlook on life, rapping, "I switched my motto, instead of saying 'fuck tomorrow'/That buck that bought a bottle, could've struck the lotto." Sure, life is a bitch, but he was mentally prepared to face it head-on with a new, positive attitude.

12. Nas "Get Down" (2002)

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Album: God's Son
Verse: Verse 1
Best Line: "New York streets where killers'll walk like Pistol Pete."

The opener for Nas' God's Son, "Get Down" flipped a loop of James Brown's "The Boss," which gave his storytelling a retro swagger. The verse starts off by setting the scene: '70s babies growing up with the memories of kingpins in expensive cars, the ones who "kept the hood from starving" with drug sales. Then, to Nas as a reckless teenager, "drunk off brew," and how random chance saves his life; then to a courtroom scene, where those who rolled the dice and lost aren't as lucky as he is, but still stand up for themselves and lash out against injustice on the way down. It captures the spirit of Nas' work more generally, the sense that he was the survivor who was tasked with memorializing experiences that would otherwise be lost.

11. Nas "It Ain't Hard to Tell" (1994)

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Album: Illmatic
Verse: Verse 1
Best Line: "Nas is like the Afrocentric Asian, half-man, half-amazing."

Like a film in fast-forward, "It Ain't Hard to Tell" moves by in a continuous flood of images and mythos-building boasts that hardly even qualify as bragging. Instead, Illmatic concludes with Nas seeming like more divine presence than man, and connected all the spiritual references ("I exhale the yellow smoke of Buddha through righteous steps") and transcendent imagery ("Sparkle like a diamond") with the turbulent violence from whence it all came: "sneak an uzi on the island in my army jacket lining." But it never stops to explain itself, preferring to construct its own logic through a pastiche of images and concepts to construct a portrait of an artist as defined by his own agency as he is mythology and violence.

10. Nas "Nas Is Like" (1999)

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Album: I Am...
Verse: Verse 1
Best Line: "Street scriptures for lost souls, in the crossroads."

If you ever wonder why people revere Nas as a lyricist, try Googling the lyrics to a song like "Nas Is Like" and reading along as the words unfold. Typical rap lyrics then to go bar by bar, almost elementary compared to Nas' fluid vocals which don't follow an easy to interpret rhyme scheme. Beyond that, there's lines like, "Street scriptures for lost souls, in the crossroads." It's one of those perfunctory Nas lines he seemingly utters without a second thought but are so immaculately poetic they encapsulate why purists value hip-hop lyrics so much and why Nas is at often at the forefront of those discussions.

9. Nas f/ Foxy Brown "Watch Dem Niggas" (1996)

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Album: It Was Written
Verse: Verse 1
Best Line: "I got no game, some bitches just understand my story."

On It Was Written, Nas' lyrics gained a calm intensity. Gone was the boyish bounce that drove cuts like "Halftime," and in its place was a furrowed brow and effortless lyricism. "Watch Dem Niggas" is one of Nas' most impressive feats, where feeling of words piling on top of each other gain an aesthetic beauty all their own, the kind that demands rewinds. There's a particular attention to details and an intricacy here. The verse's peak comes early; "I ain't got no game, it's just some bitches understand my story," Nas raps, a slow burner that proves the God MC transcended mere mortals even when it comes to chasing women.

8. Nas "Street Dreams" (1996)

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Album: It Was Written
Verse: Verse 3
Best Line: "I thought Jordans and a gold chain was living it up."

The first two verses of "Street Dreams" deal mostly with Nas's attempts to live the lavish life with means provided by the drug game. But: By the time the third verse rolls around, his words are draped in nostalgia, something Nas has always been adept at coloring with. Many of us long for the innocence of childhood, but Nas spent his younger days admiring gold rope-rocking dealers and looking down on addicts. His descriptions of the projects make it clear why he (and plenty others) see the drug game as a viable way to make it out of the poverty: Because dealers were the only ones who were able to acquire a modicum of wealth. The bittersweet finish, here, we all know too well: Nas didn't make his career flipping coke; he made it out, and caked up flipping rhymes, instead.

7. Nas "The World is Yours" (1994)

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Album: Illmatic
Verse: Verse 1
Best Line: "I'm out for dead presidents to represent me."

"The World Is Yours" may be most famous for its Pete Rock-assisted chorus, but it's the first verse that shows us why we're still talking about Nas to this day. Talking about his day-to-day, Nas references watching Ben Kinglsey's Gandhi while drunk of Dom, and writing rhymes in his own little black book. Why does he do it all? In the best line on the verse, he misleads us by expressing support of the government, before turning it around: "I'm out for dead presidents to represent me." Whose world is this? It's his, it's his, it's his.

6. Nas "The Message" (1996)

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Album: It Was Written
Verse: Verse 1
Best Line: "There's one life, one love, so there can only be one king."

The first real song on the follow-up to Illmatic shows that Nas isn't about that sophomore slump life. He comes spitting fire and coming for the crown: Nas has admitted that the "There's one life, one love so there can only be one King" line is straight for Biggie, who at the time was the biggest thing in NY rap. The verse surrounding that diss makes it clear that he has grounds for dispute, as even on his more commercial second album, he's still a lyricist like no other. If you take a shot at the King, you best not miss. Nas didn't.

5. Nas "Ether" (2001)

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Album: Stillmatic
Verse: Verse 3
Best Line: "Eminem murdered you on your own shit."

After years of throwing thinly veiled shots at each other, the Nas/Jay-Z feud came to the forefront by the time Stillmatic dropped. Many felt Nas was down for the count after "Takeover," but Nas threw all the venom he could muster on the third verse of "Ether." Here, God's Son spit an epic 40-plus bar verse and took bazooka-sized shots at Jay's rise to prominence, his label's supposed 'dick-riding,' and his misogyny. Nas pulled no punches, viciously going after Mr. Knowles's looks and his second-rate status as a rapper. Nasty Nas channeled all his rage and threw out a knockout blow, and there was no doubt as to who his target was.

4. Main Source f/ Nas, Joe Fatal & Akinyele "Live at the BBQ" (1991)

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Album: Breaking Atoms
Verse: N/A
Best Line: "When I was 12, I went to hell for snuffing Jesus."

"Live At The BBQ" may be a posse cut but let's be for real: People solely remember this record for giving birth to Nasty Nas. The verse is brimming with similes as Nasir compares his style to everything from the Steven Spielberg to AIDS patients. The song dropped, hip-hop went crazy, and everyone was on the lookout for the Queensbridge MC. This verse, along with cuts like "Halftime" and the "Prematic Freestyle," were so well received it inspired rappers like Common to switch up their style before Nas' debut album even dropped. The reason was quite simple-like Rakim before him-Nas was more than just a great rapper, Nas was lightyears ahead of his contemporaries.

3. Nas "One Love" (1994)

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Album: Illmatic
Verse: Verse 3
Best Line: "A two day stay, you may say I need the time alone, to relax my dome, no phone, left the nine at home."

Easily one of Nas' most creative songs, the first two verses of "One Love" have Nas telling stories about the block by writing letters to friends in jail. However, the third verse finds a stressed out Nas taking a vacation from the projects only to return and find only a young drug dealer named Shorty Doo-Wop on the block. Nas politics with the youngster, one who's likely to end up like Nas' friends from the first two verses, and counsels him in the ways of street, advising him not to become an accident murder who shoots up large crowds. If only the youth would listen.

2. Raekwon f/ Nas "Verbal Intercourse" (1995)

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Album: Only Built 4 Cuban Linx
Verse: N/A
Best Line: "Props is a true thug's wife."

The first non-Wu rapper to infiltrate the 36th chamber, Nas' came through with one of his best verses ever. His 16 had that perfect mix of cryptic wordplay and lyrical jewels ("Props is a true thug's wife") that Nas' verses achieve at their zenith. For all the jail talk and foulness that inhabited this track (we'll never smoke trees again without wondering if it's been inside a woman's vagina), Nas' dense rhymes are a testament to the fact that there aren't just savages roaming these streets.

1. Nas "NY State of Mind" (1994)

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Album: Illmatic
Verse: Verse 1
Best Line: "I never sleep 'cause sleep is the cousin of death."

Growing up in the largest housing project in the US, Nas saw some shit. As a storyteller, few rappers come close and that's especially clear in his first verse on "NY State of Mind." Crime is that state of mind, as he says to knock out the run of vignettes that populate the verse, and it's shaped who he became and the rapper that he is. Seeing young'ns busting out the 45s makes him reminisce, at the tender age of 20, about the game in his day. At the end, though, NY is his home, and he reps for it like few do. Say Queensbridge.

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