Nas has long associated himself with a flyness beyond comprehension (he still rocks a part for goodness sakes) so it makes sense that he’d have an album release party in the courtyard of Alife. What doesn’t quite add up is how he’d treat it like it was a barbeque at his house. The space, roughly the size of a bocce court, was packed shoulder to shoulder and subsequently, sweat-dripping-down-your-leg hot by the time we were made to part the waters for Nas and a trailing Fabolous, who, in a number of ways, looked like Nas’ little brother (sorry Jungle).
Standing on top of toppled speaker in the crowd, Nas hosted the party like he’d personally invited everyone there. He introed all the songs he performed (about half from Untitled, the other half from Illmatic, etc), cracked jokes (“Buy this album, cause next year I’m going back to rapping about rims”), stopped to clink glasses between songs, delivered verses a capella, and at one point he completely surrendered the mic to a girl in a form-fitting one-piece who flawlessly delivered his verse from “The World is Yours.” It was indeed hers, and everyone else who Nas made eye contact with and let finish his verses when he forgot lyrics, stopped to take sips, hit the blunt, or just bask in the affection. When Nas wasn’t killing shit, Green Lantern was spinning Biggie, Wu-Tang and more Nas pretty exclusively, which was cool because when you’re hanging out with Nas, that’s pretty much all you want to hear.
