Artist · chart history
Nas
Solo artist Brooklyn United States US rapper
Nas is an artist from Brooklyn. Nas has 9 chart appearances on 6 radio countdowns from 5 stations on RockLists, spanning 2021–2025. The most successful song on radio countdowns is “N.Y. State of Mind”, which appears on 2 lists with a best position of #176. The station that charted Nas most often is 90.9 The Bridge (Kansas City, MO), with 3 appearances.
Nasir Jones, born in 1973 and the son of the jazz musician Olu Dara, had been rhyming as Nasty Nas since 1989, making demos with Large Professor, and he made his recording debut on Main Source's "Live at the Barbeque" in 1991. Columbia signed him in 1992, and on April 19, 1994, out came Illmatic.
It's a lean, dense, gorgeous record, jazzy boom-bap beats under rhymes so dense and precise they read like a novel, and as tight as a fist. "The Genesis" sets the scene and "N.Y. State of Mind" is the knockout, cold, cinematic and relentless. It has since been added to the Library of Congress's National Recording Registry.
It Was Written went to the top of the Billboard 200 in 1996, carried by "If I Ruled the World" with Lauryn Hill, and made him a mainstream star. After two 1999 albums that critics found patchy, his feud with Jay-Z and the diss track "Ether" helped him win back his standing, with Stillmatic and God's Son. He later made peace with Jay-Z and signed to Def Jam in 2006, cut Distant Relatives with Damian Marley, and finally won a Grammy for Best Rap Album with 2020's King's Disease.
Written with AI assistance from RockLists chart data, MusicBrainz and Wikipedia.
Songs by Nas on radio countdowns
| # | Song | Strength | Lists | Best | #1s | Peak year |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | N.Y. State of Mind | 2 | #176 | – | – | |
| 2 | If I Ruled The World | 2 | #168 | – | – | |
| 3 | The World Is Yours | 1 | #73 | – | – | |
| 4 | If I Ruled the World (Imagine That) | 1 | #82 | – | – | |
| 5 | New York State Of Mind | 1 | #348 | – | – | |
| 6 | The Genesis | 1 | #326 | – | – | |
| 7 | Hip Hop Is Dead | 1 | #562 | – | – |
Albums with charting songs
Where each song was first released, from MusicBrainz.
Featured on
Songs by other artists credited with Nas as a guest.
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