Released 30 years ago, Nas's near-perfect debut, Illmatic, quickly cemented the New York rapper's place among the greatest MCs. However, it took much longer for event organizers to recognize his status as a festival headliner.
Returning to Ottawa Bluesfest for the first time since his 2015 opening spot for Iggy Azalea, Nas was given the honour of closing out the final night of the sprawling 10-day music festival. While the last two closers (the National in 2022 and the Smile in 2023) modestly filled the event grounds, Nas drew a sizable audience eager to hear his three decades-worth of hip-hop classics.
Surrounded by vibrant video screens and flanked by famed producer DJ Green Lantern (Eminem, Ludacris) and drummer Haze Amaze (Fantasia, Tweet), Nas kicked off his set with "Get Down" from 2002's God's Son. Rather than giving his most recognizable and celebrated songs the space and energy for fans to fully absorb, Nas instead crammed "Street Dreams," "It Ain't Hard to Tell" and "N.Y. State of Mind" into a medley, delivering only one or two verses of each.
While his hype game lacked charisma, often relying on asking the ladies and fellas to "make some noise," Nas introduced the only track from his latest LP, Magic 3, by shouting, "new shit!" Rather than giving Nas's biggest Billboard hit, "I Can," a full performance, DJ Green Lantern instead filled time by playing a snippet of the Temptations' "My Girl," over the P.A. as the rapper attempted to hype the audience. Following it up with two songs from Illmatic, "Life's a Bitch" and "One Love," Nas was able to raise the energy of the crowd. Moving back and forth across the massive stage, he exclaimed, "I feel like I'm in the '90s!"
DJ Green Lantern would continue to mix snippets of classic songs into performances, kicking off "If I Ruled the World (Imagine That)" with Tears for Fears' "Everybody Wants to Rule the World" and mixing AC/DC's "Back in Black" into "Got Ur Self a Gun." Nas tried to keep heads bobbing before closing the set with truncated versions of "The World Is Yours" and "One Mic."
Wrapping up his performance at exactly the 60-minute mark, despite being allocated a 90-minute slot typically utilized by most headliners at these same festivals, Nas limped off the stage without an encore. Building on his legend status over the years led to Ottawa Bluesfest giving Nas a headliner slot. However, he gave back the effort of an opening act.