Joe Rogan recently sat down with author Ben Westhoff for an episode of his podcast. The two got to talking about rappers. Both expressed dislike for modern “mumble rappers.”
It turns out, even though Rogan is not a fan of the current state of rap, it’s not that he doesn’t appreciate the genre at all. In fact, he loves rap. He loves what he calls “the classics.”
He admits that in his view, the classics span a long time frame. Rogan revealed who his favorite rapper is, and it’s someone who not everyone would consider a classic.
Rogan’s favorite rapper is Nas
Apparently Rogan is a “huge Nas fan.” He likes the more traditional classics like Biggie and Tupac, but even though Nas came onto the scene later than those two, he feels like Nas has a place among the greats.
It’s Nas’ lyrics that make him Rogan’s absolute favorite. He says that he’s amazed at how intricate the rapper’s verses are.
Westhoff agrees that Nas is one of the best lyricists of all time. Biggie and Tupac are the figureheads of classic rap, but Nas’ lyrics set him apart, even from the other greats.
Nas is one of the greatest rappers of all time
Rogan isn’t alone in his love for Nas. Nasir Jones, or Nas, exploded onto the scene in 1994. The same year rap’s favorite son, Tupac, was shot and killed, Nas put forth Illmatic. The album became an instant classic, and Nas quickly rose to the level of other greats, like Biggie, and Tupac.
Although Nas would put out more albums, critics think he never quite rose to the level of Illmatic with his later work.
In fact, Nas has the unlucky distinction of having albums on both the list of best rap albums of all time, and the list of worst rap albums of all times. His fourth album, Nastradamus, is widely considered to be a disaster. The album did go platinum, but the singles never made it onto the Top 40 charts.
He found navigating fame as an artist to be difficult. Despite the success of his first album, and his subsequent celebrity, he has had money troubles. He’s also struggled in his romantic life. He divorced from his wife, fellow entertainer Kelis, and their legal battles have been highly publicized.
Kelis, of “Milkshake” fame, has taken Nas to court a few times over child support for their son, Knight. Nas was reportedly paying as much as $8,000 a month for Knight, when Kelis took the Illmatic rapper to court for even more.
Nas has feuded with fellow New York great Jay-Z
In fact, their epic beef was probably the second biggest in hip-hop history. It was second only to the feud between Tupac and Biggie. It all started in the 90s, when Nas promised to record a verse for Jay-Z’s debut album, and then didn’t.
Jay-Z’s producers sampled a verse off of one of Nas’ tracks instead. Nas didn’t take kindly to this, and began dropping subtle jabs at Jay-Z in his lyrics.
It probably doesn’t help that these two started getting big at the same time, and both are from New York. They were constantly fighting over which was the best rapper in the Big Apple. The feud eventually got so nasty that Jay-Z’s mother got involved.
She was disappointed when her son made some disparaging remarks about Nas’ family, and she laid down the law for Jay-Z. She made him apologize to his rival, and he did.
Now, the two have publicly buried the hatchet.
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