I remember the day I downloaded this song, I said to myself something along the lines of “My cousin and all the old heads play Nas and talk about him all the time but I have very little of his music, let me download a few of his songs”…

funny.

this was high school for me… probably 2005/2006 during my kazaa downloading days…down south was in a crunk/gangsta/ dance frenzy and I wasn’t really feeling that.. I liked Kanye West and 2pac….so me “wanting to know more about Nas” went from downloading this song at random on a free share site at my juvenile discretion at the time to now owning his ENTIRE catalog —and him becoming my favorite rap artist of all time

What was that song that caught my eye, that day on kazaa you ask?

………….

Music for Life - Hi-Tek (Ft. Nas) —[it wasn’t even Nas’ song, he was just featured and it was a unfinished leak version at that, but that makes it all the more memorable]

[Below is Nas’ verse….I had never before heard such delicate picture of music painted by a rapper in my life, the words seemed like poetry over a beat…i’d discovered my love for lyricism —- and appreciation for other forms of MUSIC(period)]

…………………:::::::::::::::::::::

It started with rhythms I heard listenin’ to the wall
The bouncin’ of basketballs on playgrounds and all
The empty bottles that’s hollow, wind blowin’ inside ‘em
The flow and the rhymin’ got my alignment to a Science
Mixin’ with my moms in the kitchen, them spoons rattlin’
Pots and pans, faucet water pourin’, tunes managin’
To come from all the fussin’ and ramblin’
What I noticed was — pure music, untampered with
By things show biz does; older thugs showed us stuff
Like how to hold a plug, juice from the street light
It almost could have blowed us up
Crates of records, great sessions had the whole hood jammin’
Large speakers, fresh made, smell the wood sandin’
Father did his blues smooth, legendary jazz man
Saw his wife secondary to his true passion
Started with my crew rappin’, new jacks in ‘82
Never looked back, now look what it changed me to.. music

[I have been a NAS fan for a while, this was just a case where i didn’t personally own any of his music at the time of my own music library’s growth — shout out to my cousin MOE for putting me on Nas in late elementary although I was too young to comprehend then —it piqued my curiosity, now look what that influenced]