Nas

His mother, Fannie Ann (née Little; 1941–2002) was a U.S. Postal Service worker from North Carolina.

He has a brother, Jabari Fret, who raps under the name Jungle and is a member of hip hop group Bravehearts.

His father adopted the name "Olu Dara" from the Yoruba people.

"Nasir" is an Arabic name meaning "helper and protector", while "bin" means "son of" in Arabic.

He is a cousin of actors Yara Shahidi and Sayeed Shahidi.

As a young child, Nas and his family relocated to the Queensbridge housing project of the Long Island City community area in the borough of Queens.

His neighbor, Willy "Ill Will" Graham, influenced his interest in hip hop by playing him records.

Nasir bin Olu Dara Jones (born September 14, 1973), better known by his stage name Nas, is an American rapper.

Rooted in East Coast hip hop, he is regarded as one of the greatest rappers of all time.

Nasir bin Olu Dara Jones was born in the Brooklyn borough of New York City on September 14, 1973, to African American parents.

His father, Olu Dara (born Charles Jones III), is a jazz and blues musician from Mississippi.

His parents divorced in 1985, and he dropped out of school after the eighth grade.

He educated himself about African culture through the Five-Percent Nation (a splinter group of the Nation of Islam) and the Nuwaubian Nation.

In his early years, he played the trumpet and began writing his own rhymes.

As a teenager, Nas enlisted his best friend and upstairs neighbor Willie "Ill Will" Graham as his DJ.

Nas initially went by the nickname "Kid Wave" before adopting his more commonly known alias of "Nasty Nas".

The son of jazz musician Olu Dara, Nas began his musical career in 1989 under the moniker "Nasty Nas", and recorded demos for fellow East Coast rapper Large Professor.

In 1989, then-16-year-old Nas met up with producer Large Professor and went to the studio where Rakim and Kool G Rap were recording their albums.

When they were not in the recording studio, Nas would go into the booth and record his own material.

However, none of it was ever released.

He was later featured on the 1991 song "Live at the Barbeque" by his group, Main Source.

In 1991, Nas performed on Main Source's "Live at the Barbeque", also produced by Large Professor.

In mid-1992, Nas was approached by MC Serch of 3rd Bass, who became his manager and secured Nas a record deal with Columbia Records during the same year.

Nas made his solo debut under the name of "Nasty Nas" on the single "Halftime" from MC Serch's soundtrack for the film Zebrahead.

Called the new Rakim, his rhyming skills attracted a significant amount of attention within the hip hop community.

Nas's debut album, Illmatic (1994) received universal acclaim upon release, and is considered to be one of the greatest hip hop albums of all time; in 2020, the album was inducted into the Library of Congress's National Recording Registry.

Nas has released seventeen studio albums since 1994, ten of which are certified gold, platinum or multi-platinum in the U.S.

His second album, It Was Written (1996) debuted atop the Billboard 200 and sold over a quarter-million units in its first week; the album, along with its single "If I Ruled the World (Imagine That)" (featuring Lauryn Hill), propelled Nas into mainstream success.

Both released in 1999, Nas's third and fourth albums I Am and Nastradamus were criticized as inconsistent and too commercially oriented, with critics and audiences fearing a decline in the quality of his output.

From 2001 to 2005, Nas was involved in a highly publicized feud with Jay-Z, popularized by the diss track "Ether".

The feud, along with Nas's subsequent releases Stillmatic (2001), God's Son (2002), and the double album Street's Disciple (2004), helped restore his critical standing.

Nas later made amends with Jay-Z prior to signing with his then-spearheaded label, Def Jam Recordings in 2006; he adopted a more provocative, politicized direction with the albums Hip Hop Is Dead (2006) and his untitled ninth studio album (2008).

In 2010, Nas released Distant Relatives, a collaborative album with Damian Marley which donated all royalties to active African charities.

His tenth studio album, Life Is Good (2012) was nominated for Best Rap Album at the 55th Annual Grammy Awards.

In 2012, The Source ranked him second on their list of the "Top 50 Lyricists of All Time".

In 2013, Nas was ranked 4th on MTV's "Hottest MCs in the Game" list.

About.com ranked him first on their list of the "50 Greatest MCs of All Time" in 2014, and a year later, Nas was featured on the "10 Best Rappers of All Time" list by Billboard.

He is also an entrepreneur through his own record label; he serves as associate publisher of Mass Appeal magazine and the co-founder of Mass Appeal Records.

After thirteen nominations, his thirteenth studio album, King's Disease (2020) won his first Grammy for Best Rap Album at the 63rd Annual Grammy Awards.

His subsequent five albums—King's Disease II, Magic (2021), King's Disease III (2022), Magic 2, and Magic 3 (2023)—each received positive reception and were produced entirely by producer Hit-Boy.