FLASH BACK TRACKS
By Jacinta Marie
It’s only fitting to pay homage to the pioneers that paved the way for the genre of music that is currently the pulse of the world. Before there was a young thug or a yg or any other rapper that you hear on the radio today there was, in my opinion, the greatest living rapper spitting bars so hot that it would cause the wax in your ears to melt and that is the one and only Nasir “Nas” Jones. The track that I will be paying homage to is “The Message.” I have to be honest and say that my favorite thing about this song is the man sampled himself from his previous song “NY state of mind” for the hook “I never sleep cuz sleep is the cousin of death, I ain’t the type of brother made for you to start testin.” Then with the initial strums of the guitar you can already decipher that this song is about storytelling and immediately once the beat drops you can recognize how gritty the journey you're about to be sent on is truly about. With lyrics like:
I peeped you fronting, I was in the Jeep
Sunk in the seat, tinted with heat, beats bumpin
Across the street you was wilding
Talking bout how you ran the Island in eighty-nine
Laying up, playing the yard with crazy shine
I cocked a baby 9 that n***a grave be mine, clanked him
What was he thinking on my corner when it's pay me time
You can already tell where this man is headed and that this ride just got real. “The Message” circa 1996, I can recall cars driving by bumping this in the summertime in the busy south Bronx streets while sitting on the fire escape with the sound of the subway in the background and the city lights hovering brightly in the sky. This song, matter of fact this album (this song comes from his “It was written” album) was the soundtrack of that year in my opinion. With radio hits like “If I ruled the world ft. Lauryn Hill” and the original version of “Street Dreams” it’s no wonder this was his first successful mainstream album. Don’t let the fact that those were radio hits fool you though, even those tracks paint quite a vivid picture, more than most of what you probably are accustomed to if you didn’t grow up during that era. The album still has plenty of other amazing tracks that will remind you of when his album “Illmatic” dropped. Some of my favorites being “Watch them N*****” ft Foxy Brown and “Affirmative Action” ft. The Firm. “The Message” is my spotlight for this edition of Flashback Tracks and being that Nas is my all-time favorite lyricist it is only fitting that he be the first artist to introduce this installment. Rap music is still dope and expressive but it would behoove you to learn your history and get a feel for some of the early treasures of the culture. Check out “The Message” and if you enjoy the vibe you get with that, continue to explore the rest of the “it was written” album you won’t regret it; if you are from that era allow the music to set you on a nostalgic journey of summer “96” when you could hear “If I ruled the World”, “Fu-gee-la” and “Can’t knock the hustle” on the local radio waves.