Nas Puts Pressure On Himself

An MTV regular, Nas says balancing street credibility and commercial success exerts less pressure than what he puts on himself. “The pressure comes from me,” he tells Billboard.com. “After you put out a lot of work, you have to challenge yourself to do something new that feels good or makes you cry. That’s what I want my music to do. I beat myself up about that a lot. Hip-hop fans aren’t the audience that was there when hip-hop was real in the ’80s.”