Nas

Nas is more than a master of ceremonies; he's a poet with a poison-tipped tongue, able to turn words into weapons and songs into slamming mission statements. No wonder he's gotten away with calling himself such chest-puffing names as Nasty Nas and Nas Escobar. When you're at the top of the game from the get-go — as Nas was with his instant classic, 1994's jazzy but jarring Illmatic — you better believe the only way anyone's gonna grab the mic is by prying it from your cold, dead hands.

When destiny dropped Nas onto the same Queens stomping ground as old-school icons Marley Marl and the Juice Crew, the born MC was so antsy to start rhyming that he dropped out of eighth grade. A nightmare for "stay in school" advocates, Nas actually turned out to be one of the most literate wordsmiths since Rakim. Which is why most of his music plays out like a one-sided boxing match, where razor-sharp rhymes bob and weave through chunky beats and loops of candlelit rock ("The Message"), melodramatic keys ("Suicide Bounce"), and effervescent electro ("Rewind").

Nabbing Nas for one of your tracks is a lot like scoring a Hollywood star for a low-budget film. No matter how good the song is, his battle-ready skills suddenly make it seem great, whether he's sprinting through the streets of Shaolin with Wu-Tang Clan ("Let My N***as Live"); casting a bleak, brooding glow over Mobb Deep ("It's Mine"); or spinning a spider web of verses over a tense, terse string section with Scarface ("In Between Us," "Favor for a Favor").

Only one MC has ever come close to challenging Jay-Z for the King of New York title Notorious B.I.G. once held: Nas, the Queens native who's spent more than a decade reviving and often ruling the rap game. Like Jay and his sucker-punch debut, Reasonable Doubt, Nas also set things off with a roundhouse of a album (the stunning Illmatic, featuring the unparalleled production of Q-Tip, Pete Rock, DJ Premier, and Large Professor), now considered one of the '90s' best. Since then, he's upped the ante with every record, dominating minimal ("The Message," "One Love," "Disciple") and massive ("Made You Look," "Hate Me Now," "Bridging the Gap") beats with a gold-plated mic.