"Smarten up, Nas." With one line from Takeover, the savage takedown of the Queensbridge native who arguably still held New York's rap throne in 2001, Jay-Z leveled a charge that has been aimed at Nasir Jones throughout his post-Illmatic career. For every presidential move made by his former nemesis, Nas made uneven production choices, stumbled over lyrics live, mumbled his way through interviews, and struggled to stay "on message". First it was Nasty, Nas the Esco to Escobar, then he was Nastradamus, leaving his fan base unsure of which Nas they were getting with each new project.
In a patchy back catalogue of nine albums, only Illmatic reigns as an undisputed classic, marrying razor-sharp storytelling to immaculate production from DJ Premier, Pete Rock and Large Professor, and it was the five-mic perfection of his 1994 debut that Nas returned to at SXSW, backed by Premo and the Soul Brother themselves.
The tone for what would be the closing night of SXSW was set earlier in the week when Nas and his former manager Steve Stoute appeared in conversation, candidly chewing over the details of their careers in music and advertising. With Premier, Pete Rock and AZ in attendance and a carafe of red wine at the ready, Nas was unguarded and willing to touch on everything from fatherhood to life beyond hip hop. And when he took questions from the floor and was asked why he needed to tour with Damian Marley for two years following the release of their Distant Relatives collaboration, he was quick to confirm what many suspected: "I got divorced".
The road-honed confidence Nas gained from this touring stretch was written all over his return to Illmatic, which was performed at Austin's Moody Theatre, a venue that played host to Jay-Z on SXSW Music's opening night and Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band just two days before. For the final night, though, it was Nas' house, as the 2700-seater was reimagined as the mean streets of his youth, complete with a steaming subway entrance, street lights, standard issue NYC rubbish bins, and a bus stop tagged up with "RIP Ill Will", a tribute to childhood friend Willie Graham who was shot dead two years before Illmatic was released.
After Illmatic's The Genesis set the scene, complete with Wild Style footage, Premier and Pete Rock took their positions behind two sets of turntables on either side of the stage, their baby photos projected behind them to match the image of Nas as a boy on Illmatic's cover. Then the man himself emerged from the subway station, a bottle of Crystal in hand and the QB chain swinging from his neck, and ripped into a word-perfect reading of his debut.
