Does Nas Have The Greatest “Clutch Gene” Of All Time?
Recently in various rooms on Clubhouse, there have been a few attempts to discredit Nas' legacy. We've witnessed subtle jabs at his street credibility, beat selection. commercial success, and a more recent trend of actually trying to diminish the impact of Illmatic. Defending Nas' overall impact in the culture may come in another blog, but today I wanted to expound on an element that not enough people discuss when it comes to the music business, and that is artists delivering under pressure. The annoying but entertaining sports commentator, Skip Bayless, coined the popular phrase "clutch gene" in regards to athletes. In the NBA a lot of players can score buckets the first 3 quarters, but can they deliver in the end of the 4th when the game is on the line? It's the ability to perform under pressure and duress that surely exhibits one's greatest.
One of the things I love most about Nas, is his ability to deliver under pressure. There was so much anticipation going into #Illmatic. After his jaw dropping feature on Main Source's "Live at the BBQ" and MC Serch's "Back To The Grill", the anointing began almost immediately. They were calling him "the chosen one", the "savior" of hip hop, and the personification of Rakim. Many dubbed him the "god MC" and dude hadn't even dropped an album yet. So how did the 16 year old respond? He dropped arguably the greatest hip hop album EVER. A gritty opus and sonically painted portrait of hip hop's Mecca, led by the brush strokes of poetic street tales over hauntingly soulful, boom bap production. A project that marked a change in the way rappers rhymed. After delivering a culturally iconic first project, the pressure was on him again to, now, up the ante!
With Deathrow & the entire west coast killing the game, Bad Boy Records & even Wu Tang showing commercial appeal, Nas had to show he could take it to the next level and broaden his fan base along with the other hip hop heavyweights. People wondered if the soulful stanzas of Illmatic could compete in a more commercialized era of hip hop. How did Nas respond? Dropped arguably another classic LP led by hit singles "If I Ruled The World" & the "Street Dreams" remix. #ItWasWritten goes multi platinum. Though many hip hop purists criticized Nas for his intentional reach towards commercial success, he did what he felt he needed to do to bring his lyricism to more ears. Fictitious street narratives mixed in with real life experiences of his own, "It Was Written" sounded less like a poetic chapbook that was "Illmatic" and more like a grandiose gangster movie score! Nas was no longer "underground". At that point he was arguably the biggest rap star in the game. After taking nearly 3 years off & suffering the leak of his "Autobiography of Nas" album, Nas somewhat tail spun into the release of 2 lackluster projects as Jay-Z and other artists were ascending.
With fans and critics turning against him, the aesthetics of hip hop's sound evolving from lyric-driven focuses to more melodic sounds, and Jay-Z attempting to end his career, with the scathing "Takeover" diss, it wasn't looking good for Nas. I remember asking myself as a young hip hop fan, "Where does he go from here?" Classic albums now a distant memory, relevance quickly fading, mourning the death of his mother and the biggest rap star in NYC dissing him, I wondered what Nas could do to battle his way back to the top.
I'll never forget the PRESSURE that was on Nas going into his Stillmatic release. Nas' career was reeling, and Hov had just dropped a classic album in "The Blueprint"! With Biggie & Pac gone, and the debate on the best MC had shifted to Nas & Jay. In regards to that particular debate and some would even say his career, Stillmatic was a do or die release for Nas! With the odds stacked against him, what did Nas do? Well, he delivered of course. Powered by the top notch creativity in "What Goes Around" & "Rewind", the throwback feel of "I'm Da Man" & "2nd Childhood", and the lyrical master class that was "One Mic", Stillmatic was a critical and commercial success. He combined the nostalgic feel that we missed from Nasir, coupled with the street edge that made him one of the game's most feared MCs! The streets had even crowned Nas victorious with his Jay-Z comeback record, "Ether"!! Then a year later he delivered the classic, The Lost Tapes project, which featured many of the songs that were leaked off his "Autobiography" album back in 1999, and then followed that up with another multi-platinum and critically acclaimed LP, Godson.
The gift and curse of Nas' career has been his stellar debut, Illmatic. It's placed him in a pantheon of greatness shared by few, but it has also created a mountain of unrealistic expectations. Projects such as Distant Relatives, Street's Disciple, & Hip Hop Is Dead would be great releases from other artists, but because it's Nas, his albums will forever be compared to his classic early works. And because of the many perceived (some deserving labeled) disappointments it has always set the stage for an epic comeback. Even Nas' latest album, King's Disease, has been lauded as a career defining project. It's like Brady winning a ring at 43. Over 30 years in the game and a disastrous previous release with Kany West, Esco delivers a Grammy nominated project with arguably one of the best producers in the game. Nas is almost universally regarded as a top 5 MC of all time, has multiple classic albums under his belt and has sold millions of records. But to me, it's his propensity to deliver under the most immense pressure that makes him one of, if not the greatest, MCs of all time.
