Damn, I thought he would have been older then 32, so that means he made Illmatic when he was a teenager or close to it. I was thinking 35-38. Ok, thats it. Click to see who else is celebrating today: http://www.usatoday.com/life/2003-09-03-birthdays_x.htm

Does a rapper ever get to old to rap, kinda like a baseball or football player retiring do to age (Jerry Rice). Illmatic is a classic and that was Nas at his youngest and best, but ever since that album he has gotten older and hasn't made another classic album, maybe a classic song. Sould rappers retire at a certain age?

yeah...and no...everyone who claims to retire, never truly does. dmx still records. jay z still records. i think maybe if a rapper knows hes way past his prime, he should call it quits, because theres only so much you can do until even the best rappers become pretty shitty (i.e. the g-unit mobb deep) so yeah, they should retire at some point, unless theyre just that good, like common or slick rick...they still old it.

Theres no real innovation left in the rap world so its kind of hard for rappers to do much new stuff, theres only so many ways you can say the samething over new beats.

It really depends on the case cause so many of these rappers are making incredible amounts of money for putting out pure shit, a lot easier for us to sit here looking at it from a purely musical standpoint saying they should retire but if you were offered millions a year for doing it things might be different.

On another note, happy bday Nas

I would be MORE than happy to see hip hop artists rap their way into their older age. I think that it WOULD change the scene just from the fact that very experienced lyricists and producers would inevitably shake things up if not for the stangant state of the genre, then for themselves.

I hope that some of the rap "image" is pushed away and more focus is put into the art of rap / hip-hop.

I hope, you're not holding your breath and plan to live another couple hundred years? All mainstream rap is today, is hype (like the B.S. story about the $2 million dollar beat) and image.


Who needs a good rap and beat, today? All you need to do, is spend a million+ on a video, with cars their renting for the shoot, some borrowed jewelry, and women wearing as little clothes as MTV will allow.

Yeah... I'm not expecting it anytime soon.

i wouldnt mind if they all retired today

Hey now, there's good artists within the pile of rubbish.

happy bday nas, i think he was 19 when he released illmatic. good album.