Nas News

Today is the 44th birthday of one of the greatest emcees of all time - Shawn "Jay Z" Carter.

So what do you get the man who has everything? On Wednesday Jay Z is celebrating his 44th birthday and we at MTV News racked our brains trying to come up with the perfect gift idea.

Who: Tristan Paul Wilds, 24, most immediately recognizable as Michael from David Simon's Dickensian drug trade epic, The Wire , or, if you prefer lighter TV fare, as Dixon on the new 90210 .

Rap moguls and startups collide once again in this new commercial for Fancy , a Pinterest competitor.

Forming in the final year of the '70s in Minneapolis, Minnesota, The Replacements ushered in the '80s with their critically-acclaimed American indie rock sound.

Being a self-proclaimed in-the-shower, driving-in-the-car, riding-in-the-elevator singing sensation; Black Nativity is the perfect film for a person who always seems to have a song in their heart.

The progression of music will always be weighed down by periods of stagnation. Although new rap acts are presented into the mainstream every year, the actual newness of the music is generally overstated.

Favorite city: MalmA , Sweden. Dream destination: Barcelona or the Maldives. Can't live without: Family, friends, a skateboard.

Nas knows a thing or two about classic rap material. While strutting the red carpet for the Black Nativity premiere in Harlem last week, the Illmatic MC saluted Snoop Dogg for making "one of the best albums" with his 1993 debut Doggystyle , which hit its 20th anniversary this past weekend.

Nas, of course, released "One Love" on his only masterpiece Illmatic . Spekulation, a local rapper and producer whose new collection of instrumentals, Doc Watson , I reviewed last week, combined elements of IR's album with Nas' rap to make something that has a touch of magic.

Nas rocks the Fedora for a new segment on NBC's Talk Stoop with Cat Greenleaf . Esco claims that rap today has "lost it's integrity, lost it's meaning, lost it's love" and goes on to discuss the n-word, what some of his mantras are, and why suffering is important to art.

Ab-Soul, who is currently completing his untitled upcoming album, recently spoke about his views on Illuminati and Hip Hop.

Queens icon Nas has been very vocal in the past about his feelings on the state of Hip Hop.

If you call him Gabe Day-Lewis, he might just 'Gabe Day Lose It.' Here, we present the best lyrics from 'Green Auras.'

Trying to decode rap lyrics, as rich as they often are in regional slang and obscure references, can be like watching a foreign-language movie without subtitles.

A documentary that reveals how a forgotten record by the Incredible Bongo Band helped cement the foundation of hip hop when DJ Herc extended its percussion by playing them back to back, creating an anthem on the streets of the Bronx.

In 1989, the Black Crowes emerged from that cultural backdrop with a bluesy, '70s-hard-rock edge and jangle-inflected improvisational inclinations, presaging virtually every element of the most recent wave of classic-rock revisionism.

It's been years since the last edition of this Urban Latin Music Festival. But finally, the 305 is getting another shot of the fest's Spanglish street party vibe.

Legendary hip-hop lyricist and poet Nas has been chosen to become the face of a new Hip-Hop Fellowship that was founded and developed at Harvard University earlier this year.

Nas is putting another feather in his cap by executive producing a new dance documentary alongside director Adam SjA berg called Shake The Dust .