No tags yet.
N.Y. State of Mind by Nas is one of those songs that can’t be confined to purely rap circles. It’s too descriptive, too clever and too accessible to not reach every corner of the music world. I mean, even if you’d never heard the word “rap” before, you’d still likely know the song from its features in numerous films and commercials. The second the pitter patter of piano keys come in like approaching footsteps, you’ll recognize it. Even after almost 30 years, throughout which Nas has coalesced 18 albums into a unanimous hall of fame rap career, the song is still lauded as his best and for many good reasons. It’s those good reasons that have led me to call this the greatest rap song of all time. Let’s discuss and probably debate.
Legendary Status
N.Y. State of Mind is the very first track on Nas’s very first album Illmatic which some call the greatest rap album of all time and many more call the greatest debut album. As DJ Premier's beat begins to sprawl, a 19-year-old Nas opens by admitting “I don’t know how to start this shit” before unleashing two massive verses filled with amazing wordplay, gritty storytelling and a flawless flow that’s become synonymous with the equally flawless keys which back it. Nas’s humble admittance in the opening was deliberately left in as it’s said that he rapped the whole song on the first take, proving that he did in fact know how to start that shit. While most new artists tend to stumble as they find their footing in the rap world, Nas arrived on the scene with his very best work. That’s like dropping 60 in your rookie debut before backing it up with a top-10 level career to boot. Rappers have come out the gates hot before, but Nas decided to melt the gates down with a flamethrower and stroll through them instead.
The Pillars of Rap
If you looked up the word “rap” in the dictionary, you definitely wouldn’t see a picture of this song but you would absolutely be justified in drawing one in yourself. The song is 4:54 of bar after bar with an intentional break in between verses. DJ Premier, the producer of the track, says this break was necessary to give the audience time to digest the lyrics. A smart move as this track is a lyrical buffet of what characterizes rap. Here’s four of the most essential elements of the genre found in this song.
New York City - The birthplace of rap and (duh) the topic of the song.
Violence - In the middle of the first verse, Nas tells the story of a shootout he may or may not have been in. The narrative is tense and captivating yet as quickly as it begins, it ends (I imagine this is what an actual gunfight feels like but I hope to never find out). This goes to show how predisposed to violence Nas was, that it doesn’t even take up the majority of his opening verse.
Drugs - Much of rap has always been about drugs and this track is no exception with plenty of references to weed, coke and crack. Nas doesn’t shy away from these topics as his retelling of their impact on New York gives us insight to what it took for some to get by. Much of the track is about the drug game and how many people were selling around Nas’s way. We see their dependency on this way of life when he says, “I think of crime when I’m in a New York state of mind.”
Things You Can’t Say Anymore - One thing that lends both to rap's popularity and it’s divisiveness is how unfiltered it can be. Nowadays, artists can get away with a lot less. Back then, Nas could say something like “and the stuff that I write is even tougher than d*kes,” and get away with it, possibly because of the sheer cool factor of it all. Today, this line would lead to absolutely too many volatile Youtube video discussions.
Iconic Beat
Many rappers would have gotten washed by the descending piano sample, boom-bap drums and whatever that high pitched ding noise is that DJ Premier crafts into one of rap's most iconic beats on this track. Nas isn’t like many rappers though. He more than lives up to the standard that Premier sets with this beat, combining his flow with the instrumental to create a single iconic entity.
Immersive Storytelling
From the moment Nas declares New York “the f***ing dungeons of rap” you know this track is going to have some grit to it. He proves this as he opens the first verse with tales of guns, drugs and drinks, which are all apparently crucial to life in NY. As he introduces himself through way of bold claims about his talents, Nas suddenly pivots into the role of a storyteller. It’s easy to get lost in the beat and not realize that we’re suddenly beside Nas himself in the middle of a shootout, which comes to a head as he escapes the scene holding a jammed gun before running into a lobby filled with children. Then he pivots again. Though he was also only a kid at the time, he shows plenty of maturity and wisdom as he comments on the predatory nature of gang violence on the New York youth. To shift from an intense action scene into commentary on the morality of said action is rare for any storytelling medium and certainly only done by the best of the best when it comes to rap.
Sticky Lines
For a song to be truly legendary, it needs some lines that stick with you over time. This one has too many to count. I’m going to count them. Here’s the top 5.
5. “Holding an M16, see with the pen I’m extreme.”
This is what is called “interior rhyme.” That’s when we find rhymes within the same lines (I just did it right there) instead of seeing them paired up with the ending of the next line. Outside of that, it’s also just a very intimidating thing to say, especially when you consider that he deems himself more extreme with the pen than with the automatic rifle.
4. “I ain’t the type of brother made for you to start testin’/Give me a Smith & Wesson, I’ll have n****s undressin’.”
Here we get both interior AND end rhymes, which is very cool, but not as cool as Nas saying that you shouldn’t mess with him or else he’ll rob you at gunpoint and take the clothes off your back.
3. “I ran like a cheetah with thoughts of an assassin.”
This is how Nas describes himself running to his gun as he and his gang are ambushed at their home. Not only is he an assassin in this analogy but he ALSO possesses the speed of a cheetah. Oh, and he’s just picked up a MAC-10. There’s no possible way to hear all that and still view him as a 19-year-old kid and that’s the point of the song. The streets of New York were so dangerous that they were turning kids into gun wielding cheetah assassins.
2. “I got so many rhymes I don’t think I’m too sane/Life is parallel to hell but I must maintain.”
Here we see Nas let down his walls for just a brief moment. If you’ve been listening to any of the rest of the song you can tell by now that things were BAD in New York. Though there’s hyperbole in every rap, Nas goes all in on describing the place as a warzone and he admits that it’s about as bad as it can get. Still, there’s no quit in his affirmation that he “MUST maintain.” To him, this is just the way of things.
“I never sleep, cause sleep is the cousin of death.”
So nice he says it twice. Nas makes plenty of braggadocious claims on this track but this is somehow the most unbelievable. His retelling of life in his neighborhood is a rollercoaster to say the least, and one that I know would make me very tired. There’s no way the man doesn’t sleep. But also, maybe he doesn’t. He seems to have a solid relationship with sleep if he’s aware that it is, in fact, the cousin of death. I wouldn’t want to associate with anyone that was related to death. And neither, apparently, does Nas.