The Breakdown: a Nas special

I got to play at the Nas show show in Melbourne on Wednesday night which was an honour as he has always been one of my favourite MC's and I still rate Illmatic as my favourite hip-hop LP. It was great fun dropping Shook One's pt. II and seeing a crowd really respond to it. Good to finally see Nas but his band was more of a rock band (think big guitar solo's and accompanying posturing) and I wanted to here the records I know and love. Just him and a DJ would have suited me fine. But anyway I can't really complain cos hey... I supported Nas.
On my show I did a whole Illmatic special, playing the album in it's entirety but extending it out by mixing in and out of the original songs that were sampled. In keeping with that I thought I might throw a few Nas related joints to ya.



Nas - Represent (Colombia LP 'Illmatic', 1994)
Lee Erwin - The Thief Of Baghdad (ripped from a dodgy comp!)

I know you've all heard it a million times but I just love this DJ Premier produced track. This record made so much more sense to me after I had been to New York and listened to it while rolling round on the trains (cheesy I know but do it one time if you get the chance and haven't already). The Thief Of Baghdad is apparently Primo going back to 1924(!) in one of the greatest sample flips of all time. Represent!

Nas - Get Down (Shizola remix, bootleg 12", 2006)

Nice little bootleg party track from a few years back - takes on of my favourite Nas vocals and adds a bit of Kool And The Gang. Not everyone's cup'o'tea but always did the business for me.

Nas - Nas Will Prevail (Original Demo Tape, 1991
Nas - Back To The Grill feat. MC Serch (Original Demo Tape 1991)

This is supposed to be from Nas' original demo tape to Colombia records but there is a little conjecture over that - it's mostly stuff he did from '89 to '92. First one is an early version of 'It Ain't Hard To Tell' and the second a track that also appeared on the MC Serch (Mr Gas Face himself) LP 'Return Of The Product' of 1992. The rest of the mixtape is pretty decent but you can't go wrong with Nas rocking over 90's boom bap can ya?