Asher Roth The Lounge / 127 votes More

Time The Lightswitch / 2807 votes More

Nat Kendall Dignified Man / 42 votes More

Karina Nistal Sweet Rain / 74 votes More

U-N-I Beautiful Day / 149 votes More

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Top 10 Videos: Nas vs. The Roots :: It's more than new albums that unite two of hip-hop's greatest

By Brandon Perkins   Photography by Phil Knott

05/13/08 :: URB 153

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.