Nas Is Like

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Lore & Background

In the 14 Deadly Secrets by DJ Premier, he said: "This shit is crazy: the day I made this record, I was at my house in Long Island, and I found this old record that I was gonna throw away. It was a ten inch record from a Lutheran church, and it was pink with a black fish on it. And I was gonna throw it in the garbage, 'cuz it didn't look like it had anything hot on it. But somethin' told me 'before you throw it away, put it on the turntable, see if you can find something on it.' And I found that sample of 'Nas Is Like', and I broke it into 3 parts, scratched it live to the drumbeat that I already had, with the little chirpin' birds and from there, 'Nas Is Like' was born, man..." For almost a decade after the track's release, the main sample remained unknown. In April 2008, an unnamed MP3 file featuring the original sample was uploaded by Dusty Kid from Strictly Breaks. The sample was first identified as "Cantata of New Life" by John Rydgren, but later revealed to be John Rydgren and Bob R. Way's 1966 song "What Child Is This?", from their record *Thoughts on the Carols*. The song also contains scratched vocal samples from Nas' previous songs "It Ain't Hard to Tell" (1994) and "Street Dreams" (1996), bird chirps from Don Robertson's "Why", and a vocal sample from Biz Markie's "Nobody Beats the Biz".

In Their Own Story

The music video, directed by Nick Quested, shows Nas rapping in the Queensbridge projects and features cameos by NBA player Ron Artest and fellow Queensbridge rappers Nature and The Bravehearts. It was the first video on his YouTube channel to surpass 100 million views. "Nas Is Like" reached number 86 on the Billboard Hot 100, number 14 on the Canadian Singles Chart, and peaked at number 3 on the Rap songs chart. M.F. DiBella of Allmusic stated: "Superproducer Premier comes to save the day...['Nas Is Like' is] nothing short of Illmatic perfection. 'Nas Is Like''s symphonic composition is the perfect complement for an MC of Nas' supreme vocal quality and precise lyrics." The song's popularity caused various songs to borrow its beat, structure and lyrics: during his brief feud with Nas, Memphis Bleek recorded "Memphis Bleek Is..."; Royce da 5'9" freestyled over the instrumental on his 2007 mixtape *The Bar Exam*; lyrics were sampled in Braille and Rob Swift's 2008 song "The IV"; West Coast rapper Kendrick Lamar made a freestyle to this song in January 2013 on Hot97; J. Cole uses the first part of "Nas Is Like" for the intro of his song "Let Nas Down"; Apathy recorded "Ap is like"; Wale sampled the song for his single "Folarin Is Like"; and the song was included in the soundtrack of NBA 2K18.

Reader's Guide

The A-side of the single includes three versions: "Nas Is Like" (Main) at 3:50, "Nas Is Like" (Clean) at 3:57, and "Nas Is Like" (Instrumental) at 3:57. The B-side features "Dr. Knockboots" (Main) at 2:25, produced by Poke & Tone, along with Clean and Instrumental versions. The track listing is exact: A-Side holds the three "Nas Is Like" mixes; B-Side holds the three "Dr. Knockboots" mixes. The song's structure—braggadocios and introspective lyrics over a choppy string sample—is built from DJ Premier's live scratching of a sample he found on a ten-inch Lutheran church record, broken into three parts and laid over a drumbeat with chirping birds.

Did You Know?

• The main sample was unknown for almost a decade; it was finally identified in April 2008 as John Rydgren and Bob R. Way's 1966 song "What Child Is This?" from *Thoughts on the Carols*.
• DJ Premier found the sample on a ten-inch pink record with a black fish on it from a Lutheran church that he was about to throw away.
• The music video was the first on Nas' YouTube channel to surpass 100 million views.
• The song features scratched vocal samples from Nas' own earlier songs "It Ain't Hard to Tell" (1994) and "Street Dreams" (1996).
• Kendrick Lamar made a freestyle to this song in January 2013 on Hot97.