On a humid Thursday evening in a quaint downtown corner of St.Petersburg, Fl, an area mainly reserved for irish pubs and folk bars, Nas‘ lyrics, ad-libs and expletives included, permeated the air, unapolegetically.
The nostalgia of Illmatic filled the city and hip-hop hearts of fans who have been waiting for this very moment since the Queens rapper emerged almost 23 years prior.
Unbeknownst to the world at the time, and amid low album sales, that very piece of work would inspire generations of hip-hop fans all over the world, introducing them to the fundamentals of rap lyricism one track at a time.
Joey Clay Photography
Jannus Live housed Nas’ sold-out show on his quest across North America featuring D.C. rapper Wale and Nick Grant as the openers.
Nas’ performance took fans through his entire discography touching on radio hits like his verse on Missy Elliot’s “Hot Boyz”, and single “You Owe Me” which features Ginuwine. The set list was structured to leave all fans satisfied as he kept it up tempo and mellowed it out perfectly with joints like “One Mic” and “The Message”.
To add to the night’s festivities rapper Wale celebrated his birthday Thursday night with a lively performance and a bottle of Ace of Spades. The PG county representer joined Nas onstage and gracefully acted as his hype-man which left the crowd with a one of a kind experience to last a lifetime.
Nas will continue his tour across the country with various special guest along the way. He is set to perform in Orlando September 24th before heading to L.A. and finishing off in Vancouver.For more information on where you can see Nas live click here.
Photos courtesy of www.JoeyClay.com.
