By Brandon Perkins
They haven’t forever been BFF—there were a few heated radio interviews surrounding Nas’ epic beef with Jay-Z because The Roots were his backing band and all—but the similarities between Illadelphia’s illest and Queensbridge’s finest are striking. Both Def Jam artists are in the midst of a press assault for their tenth album (counting the often uncounted records The Lost Tapes, The Roots Come Alive and Home Grown!). They both succeeded and failed on other major labels before coming home to roost with the most heralded hip-hop label of all time. It’s been long careers for both and yet, there will always feel like something was amiss. Be it Eve’s rhymes being type-casted in The Roots’ music video for “You Got Me” or Nas’s foray into the jiggy era, there were un-ignorable decisions made in the heat of the moment known as the ‘90s. But the lack of perfection should never negate inclusion in the conversation of greatness. While The Roots have been the poster artists for hip-hop’s conscious subsect, Nas (perhaps) unfairly gets lumped into that gangster rap mentality all too often. Then there are the videos. In celebration of their appearance on the cover of URB #153, URB.com decided to run down the greatest of these greats, in no particular order.
Nas, Made You Look
Just when you thought there couldn’t possibly be another sample built around “Apache.” Hard motherfuckin’ body. Perhaps the most happy-violence inspiring hip-hop cut of all-time (not featuring M.O.P.), Nas’ 2002 single from God’s Son is the embodiment of music as energy. And that energy will punch you in the face. Like almost all of Nas’ videos, the footage isn’t anything but grainy grainy street street shit, but it works perfectly with the purely summer-in-NYC heat that this cut oozes.
The Roots, The Next Movement
A simple performance video has never been more complicated. The curtains open, the curtains close, the curtains open again. Each view has Illadelph’s finest in more and more ridiculous situations, be it Hub riding piggy back or some gravity defying funk…come to think of it, it’s all gravity defying funk.
Nas ft. Puff Daddy, Hate Me Now
Jesus! Explosions! Strippers! Spittle! This video would make the list for the sheer fact that it forced Diddy to hit Steve Stoute in the head with a telephone…not because we don’t like Stoute, but because big budget videos hardly ever inspired ANYTHING in people (nevermind spittle filled anger).
The Roots, 75 Bars (Black’s Reconstruction)
We said it at the time of this video’s debut and we’ll say it again: The Roots will waterboard your ass. Never a group to shy away from complicated topics, “75 Bars” is overflowing in torturous violence that’s only out-done by Black Thought’s lyrics. This video and song set the tone for Rising Down, The Roots most thorough realization of their aesthetic yet.
Nas, Street Dreams
The only time Nas could ever get away with a fuschia suit is when Frank Vincent is rocking a lime green get-up right next to him. This flick is often a reminder of that jiggy-era Nas that many hip-hop heads choose to forget, but its erroneously gangster plot is picture perfect to us.
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