Nas has no competition in Vegas

Spencer Patterson

Monday, Nov. 22, 2004 | 8:25 a.m.

Local hip-hop fans nearly got the chance to judge New York City's longstanding rap rivalry up close this week.

Star rappers Jay-Z and Nas -- who have vied for the title "King of New York" and feuded publicly for years -- were scheduled to perform in Las Vegas within seven days of each other.

But Jay-Z canceled his area stopover last week, leaving his adversary to make his case without competition Sunday night at the House of Blues at Mandalay Bay.

Nas, who has a new double album on the way, seemed intent on reasserting his stature as one of the top MCs on the hip-hop scene.

Early in the show, the 31-year-old Queens, N.Y., native dug out the "(expletive) Jay-Z" rallying cry from his 2001 diss track "Ether," to the delight of the crowd of about 1,350.

Nas then launched into "Thief's Theme," the first single from "Street's Disciple," the two-disc set due Nov. 30. Set to the bassline from Iron Butterfly's "In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida," the sinister number has heightened expectations for Nas' seventh studio project.

"Thief's Theme" includes a reference to Nas as a "philosophical gangsta," an accurate description judging from Sunday's performance. Although filled with sampled gunshots and allusions to street violence, Nas' music is too lyrically diverse and socially conscious to be lumped in with run-of-the-mill gangsta rap.

Gripping his microphone in one hand and gesturing intensely with the other, the headliner showed off a forceful-yet-smooth flow, enabling his audience to hear most every word out of his mouth.

"We lost a soldier this year," he announced, leading the crowd through a chant of "R.I.P./O.D.B." while his DJ played recently deceased rapper Ol' Dirty Bastard's 1995 hit single "Shimmy Shimmy Ya."

The highlight came early, when Nas ran through four cuts -- "It Ain't Hard to Tell," "The World Is Yours," "Represent" and "N.Y. State of Mind" -- off 1994 debut album "Illmatic," widely regarded as one of the top records in hip-hop history.

Nas was unable to maintain that momentum for long, however, as the show followed the basic storyline of the rapper's post-"Illmatic" career: inconsistent efforts dotted with the occasional peak moment.

An emotional rendering of "One Mic," which saw Nas drop to his knees for verses then jump to his feet for the chorus, was memorable, as was an energetic, set-closing version of "Made You Look."

But most of the new material sagged, in part because Nas' fans were unable to sing along with its still-unreleased tracks.

The 65-minute performance also came up a bit short, particularly when the headliner exited without offering even a single encore number.

A somewhat lethargic Sunday night crowd -- which virtually ignored local act the Chapter during a solid opening set -- was partially to blame for the night's reserved atmosphere.

In the end, Southern Nevadans were left to wonder whether Jay-Z would have burned a bit brighter. Or at least if his impending presence in town might have spurred his rival to try just a little harder.