There’s a new Nas single out. And guess what? It’s nothing special.

Indeed, it’s been so long since Nas was truly great that these days, it’s much more interesting to listen in to the slim period of his creative life when his finest hours were still to come. I’ll take pre-fame Nas over his current output any day.

On these 1991/1992 demos the teenage emcee oozes potential through his Kool G Rap chrysalis. In the first two tracks, Illmatic fans will recognize countless scraps of rhyme that would find themselves transplanted into more fully-realized verses within a couple of years, while the last track, “Nas Will Prevail”-–complete with great Wild Style-esque video-– is an obvious precursor of “It Ain’t Hard to Tell,” with everything from the backing track to the rhyme scheme as instantly recognisable as they are embryonic. Magical stuff. Rewarding, too.
 

 
Below, “Nas Will Prevail”