Recent Articles

Recent Articles by James Mayo

  • Rakim

    This revered hip-hop framer isn't crazy about the state of the game.

  • Lifesavas Take Portland to School

    Meet the three righteous teachers behind Hip-Hop 101.

  • Nas

    Wednesday, April 25, Fillmore Auditorium, 303-830-8497.

  • Jay-Z

    Kingdom Come
    Roc-A-Fella

  • Lyfe Lesson

    After being locked up for a decade, Lyfe Jennings found freedom in music.

National Features >

  • SF Weekly

    Identity Plagiarism

    A blogger steals someone else's life story and calls it her own.

    By Ashley Harrell

  • Miami New Times

    Mold Over Miami

    The family of a dead judge blames a creeping fungus in the federal courthouse.

    By Tim Elfrink

  • The Pitch

    McCain Girl

    I worked at Kmart with John McCain's director of strategy.

    By Alan Scherstuhl

Nas

Wednesday, April 25, Fillmore Auditorium, 303-830-8497.

By James Mayo

Published on April 19, 2007

On his latest effort, Hip-Hop Is Dead, Nas performs an autopsy on rap's corpse, and the results are ugly: Toothless rap pioneers-turned-crackheads and one-hit wonders who have no sense of history populate hip-hop's wasteland. By contemplating the demise of an art form that he fell in love with as a youngster growing up in the Queensbridge projects, Nas has produced a tome worthy of his classic debut, Illmatic. Continuing the creative resurgence that began in 2001, after Jay-Z knocked him out of complacency with the ultimate dis record, The Takeover, Nasir Jones has evolved into one of the game's elder statesmen, a gatekeeper for a genre he feels has sold its soul. (Recently, the two NYC rivals squashed their beefs by performing "Dead Presidents" on stage together, and Nas now records for the Jay-Z-helmed Def Jam.) Nas's recent dissertation, full of vivid images and ideas, shows why the self-proclaimed "God's Son" deserves the honorary title of hip-hop poet laureate.



Westword Insiders

  • Local food, music and news blasts
  • Free Stuff
Backpage.com