Nas

Rapper/Producer/Actor How to become a hip hop legend in your own time: Grow up in Queensbridge, New York. (It helps if your father is jazz legend Olu Dara.) Drop a killer verse on the Main Source's 1991 "Live At the BBQ." Record the standout single, “Halftime,” on the Zebrahead soundtrack in 1992, earning comparisons to Rakim. Seal the deal two years later by releasing a seminal, game-changing, narrative masterpiece of a debut album called Illmatic. Whether battling Jay-Z or declaring that “Hip Hop is Dead” Nas has never shied away from controversy. Besides his prolific musical output, Nasir Jones has also appeared in films like Belly and Hawaii Five-O.