Top 25 Nas Songs

Nas is like half-man/half-amazing

I present my ordered collection of what I consider Nas’ 25 best songs. These are limited to only Nas releases where he is the primary artist. Please pardon the triteness, but I totally agree that Nas’ best work was made right as he was first starting out in the early 1990s. His first album, Illmatic, is the greatest rap album ever made*. Perfect from start to finish, you’ll see it’s most certainly well-represented on this list. His second album, It Was Written also fares well here. Almost as classic as his first album, the album oozes that classic hip hop feel and Nas’ precise lyricism and delivery are at its peak.

Nas wasn’t done making classic songs with those two albums, but his excellence got a little sparser as the years went by. Nonetheless, he made plenty of fantastic hip hop gems after that. Take a look for yourself and I look forward to reading your comments on the matter of the legendary Nas. God’s Son or not, it’s hard not to consider him the greatest MC there’s ever been.

* Not up for debate, but feel free to Google it if you wanna validate this.

Listen to this list on Spotify: Best of Nas

The List:

1. Nas – N.Y. State Of Mind – Explicit Album Version – Illmatic
2. Nas – Nas Is Like – I Am…
3. Nas – Shootouts – It Was Written
4. Nas – One Mic – Explicit Album Version – Stillmatic
5. Nas – It Ain’t Hard To Tell – Explicit Album Version – Illmatic
6. Nas – Memory Lane (Sittin’ In Da Park) – Explicit Album Version – Illmatic
7. Nas – The Message – It Was Written
8. Nas – If I Ruled The World (imagine that) – It Was Written
9. Nas – One Love – Explicit Album Version – Illmatic
10. Nas – Ether – Stillmatic
11. Nas – Rewind – Stillmatic
12. Nas – Affirmative Action – It Was Written
13. Nas – My Way – The Lost Tapes
14. Nas – Halftime – Explicit Album Version – Illmatic
15. Nas – Hate Me Now (featuring Puff Daddy) – I Am…
16. Nas – The World Is Yours – Explicit Album Version – Illmatic
17. Nas – Nas Is Coming – It Was Written
18. Nas – Street Dreams – It Was Written
19. Nas – The Don – Life is Good
20. Nas – Represent – Explicit Album Version – Illmatic
21. Nas – Accident Murderers – Life is Good
22. Nas – Got Ur Self A… – Stillmatic
23. Nas – Made You Look – God’s Son
24. Nas – Nasty – Life is Good
25. Nas – Purple – The Lost Tapes

By album, the list breaks down as such:

1. Illmatic (1994): 7 tracks
2. It Was Written (1996): 6 tracks
3. Stillmatic (2001): 4 tracks
4. Life is Good (2012): 3 tracks
5. I am…: (2 tracks)
6. The Lost Tapes (2002): 2 tracks
7. God’s Son (2002): 1 track