Staying Cool Under Fire

By CHRISTOPHER JOHN FARLEY

Nas walks the line. Between gangsta-leaning and Godfearing, between lustful and romantic, between the poetic and the scatological. He has starred in a movie (director Hype Williams' Belly), performed high-profile duets (with Mary J. Blige and Lauryn Hill), and dodged death (when his friend and fellow New Yorker Biggie Smalls was shot and killed in 1997, Nas went into virtual seclusion, fearing for his life). He's proud but not bombastic, he's casual in tone but almost always serious in content, and although his raps are deeply personal, he strives for the prophetic. He's a craftsman of words; he wants to tell a story, communicate ideas, not just spew rhymes, rage and attitude. Ultimately the ambition of his lyrics and themes is what makes him hip-hop's most important and interesting male solo performer.

Nas' first solo album, Illmatic (1994), was a rap classic--lean, smart and at times jazzy. His new album, I Am... (Columbia), aims even higher: the songs are grander, more aggressive, more cinematic. Several top pop performers stop by for duets, including Puff Daddy (on the booming Hate Me Now), hip-hop-soul singer Aaliyah (on the ballad You Won't See Me Tonight) and gangsta rapper DMX (on the rough-riding Life Is What You Make It).

One of the best songs on the album is Ghetto Prisoners, a stirring call for the poor and downtrodden to stand up and resist the powers that keep them down. "Get up/ Wake up/ Rise," raps Nas. Another sharply realized song is Undying Love, a violent tale of a man who kills his cheating lover and then himself. Other, less talented rappers might have turned the song into something venomous and exploitative. Nas' rendering of this bloody story reminds one of Bruce Springsteen's spare, misanthropic songs on Nebraska, or even of Raymond Carver's terse short stories. The last line in Undying Love is "now under God, we elope." And then there is a single gunshot. Nas takes no joy in his raps of woe; he's a reporter coolly relaying the madness of his world and the turmoil in his heart.

Again and again on this CD, Nas raps about struggle and loss. Originally he recorded--then dropped from the album--a soulful, introspective song about growing up poor called Project Windows; here's hoping he will include it on a future album. Another song (one that made the cut), We Will Survive, mourns the shooting death of superstar rappers Tupac Shakur and Biggie Smalls. "[Smalls and I] were supposed to meet the night he died," says Nas. "I can't forget Biggie and Pac--they made it possible for rap music to blow up the way it is now."

Nas is actively and eagerly building on their legacy. On one of his new songs, the insistent I Want to Talk to You, he attacks Congress, the President and various public officials, exhorting them to do something, anything, about the conditions of the inner city. In doing so, Nas breaks out of the pack of contemporary rappers. He's not just identifying problems. He's demanding solutions.

--By Christopher John Farley