Thanks to my good friend Andrew Burke, I was at a Heineken party/concert last night with performances by Wale, Estelle, and the main event Ludacris. As Luda’s set neared its end I was pleasantly surprised to see Nas pop up on stage for his verse of “I Did It For Hip Hop.” Luckily for us, that was not the end of Nas for the night. He followed with some of his classics, including “If I Ruled the World” and “N.Y. State of Mind.”

While watching Nas do his thing, I couldn’t help but think of a question I had been asked a few times since putting out Live From New York, “Why not more Nas tracks?”  This question came as no surprise since I knew the Queensbridge MC was slightly under represented on the mixtape, considering his undisputed contributions to New York hip hop.  The thing a lot of people don’t understand about LFNY, is that it was never meant to be a “Best Of.”  My goal was to make a classic mixtape that felt good, flowed well, and like the songs on it, stood the test of time.  I made sure all 73 minutes came together a certain way, even if that meant leaving out certain artists or songs.  

If I had a chance to redo Live From New York, I wouldn’t change anything.  There are plenty of great tracks that didn’t make the cut, and this is a testament to the amount of quality music coming out in that era.  I want to see more DJs and producers put out these type of mixes so we can continue to revisit the good ol’ days.  Nas will always be one of my favorite MCs to ever do it, and “N.Y. State of Mind” will always be my favorite of his records.  

Nas – N.Y. State of Mind