Joe Rogan Reveals His Favorite Rapper
Joe Rogan recently sat down with author Ben Westhoff for an episode of his podcast. The two got to talking about rappers, and both expressed dislike for modern “mumble rappers.”
While Rogan is not a fan of the current state of rap, he still appreciates the genre and loves what he calls “the classics.” Rogan revealed who his favorite rapper is — and it’s someone not everyone would consider a classic.
Rogan’s favorite rapper is Nas
Apparently Rogan is a “huge Nas fan.” He also likes the more traditional classics, such as Biggie and Tupac, and he feels Nas has a place among these greats.
It’s Nas’ lyrics that make him Rogan’s absolute favorite. He said he’s amazed at how intricate the rapper’s verses are.
Westhoff agreed that Nas is one of the best lyricists of all time. Biggie and Tupac are the figureheads of classic rap, but Nas’ lyrics set him apart.
Nas is one of the greatest rappers of all time
Rogan isn’t alone in his love for Nas. Nasir Jones, or Nas, exploded onto the scene in 1994 when he put forth Illmatic. The album became an instant hit. Although Nas would put out more albums, many critics think he never quite rose to the level of Illmatic with his later work.
In fact, Nas has the unlucky distinction of having albums on both the list of best rap albums of all time and the list of worst rap albums of all time. His fourth album, Nastradamus, is widely considered to be a disaster. The album did go platinum, but the singles never made it onto the top 40 charts.
Nas also found navigating fame as an artist to be difficult. Despite the success of his first album and his subsequent celebrity, he has had money troubles. He’s also struggled in his romantic life. He’s divorced from fellow entertainer Kelis, and their legal battles were highly publicized.
Kelis, of “Milkshake” fame, has taken Nas to court a few times over child support for their son, Knight. Nas was reportedly paying around $8,000 a month for Knight when Kelis took the Illmatic rapper to court for even more.
Nas has feuded with fellow New York great Jay-Z
Nas and Jay-Z also have had their issues. In fact, their epic beef was probably the second biggest in hip-hop history only to the feud between Tupac and Biggie.
It all started in the ’90s when Nas promised to record a verse for Jay-Z’s debut album and then didn’t. Jay-Z’s producers sampled a verse off one of Nas’ tracks instead. Nas didn’t take kindly to this and began dropping subtle jabs at Jay-Z in his lyrics.
It probably didn’t help that these two started getting big at the same time, and both were from New York. They were constantly fighting over who was the best rapper in the Big Apple.
The feud eventually got so nasty that Jay-Z’s mother got involved. She was disappointed when her son made some disparaging remarks about Nas’ family, and she laid down the law for Jay-Z. She made him apologize to his rival, and he did. Now, the two have publicly buried the hatchet.
