Born Nasir bin Olu Dara Jones in brooklyn on september 14th 1973. He moved to Queensbridge housing projects in queens when he was young. Nasir and his younger brother Jungle were left behind by their father in their early teens to pursue his music career as a Jazz musician. Ann Jones, Nas's mother raised the two kids on her own.
He dropped out of school in the ninth grade and began selling drugs on the streets of New York where he met hip-hop producer and Queens bridge resident Large Professor, who introduced Nas to his group, Main Source. His first verse was on "Live at the Barbeque", from Main Source's LP Breaking Atoms in 1991.
In 1994 he dropped arguably one of the greatest hip-hop albums of all time "Illmatic".
In the following years Nas try to go more mainstream with his rap by changing personas from Nasty Nas to escobar to Nastradamus although he sold more albums many felt he had lost his credibility. With albums like It was written, The Firm, I am and Nastradamus.
In 2001 with the highly publicized rivalry with Jay-Z he dropped Stillmatic which recaptured his older style that the fans really needed. Featuring the song "ether" that took shots at Jay-z and Nas was alleged to have been the winning combatant.
In 2002 Nas released the God's Son album. The second single, the inspirational "I Can" got a lot of airplay on all major music radio and video stations. The album went platinum and was his 6th album. In 2004 he released his seventh album the double-disc Street's Disciple. His first single "Bridging the Gap" features his father Olu Dara on vocals. The album is more mature, touching on different subjects such as his new wife Kelis, his mother's death and political issues facing African-Americans.
In more recent years Nas and Jay-z have reconciled During Jay-Z's I Declare War - Power House concert. In January 2006, Nas signed a label deal with Jay-Z's Def Jam. Nas' new label will be called "The Jones Experience" and his album is due in fall of 2006.
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