AZ; What's He up To

AZ is a New York rapper that came into prominence around the same time Biggie, Jay-Z and Nas did, but he never seemed to blow up big. He is a long time friend of Nas, and was the only rapper featured on Nas's debut album- Illmatic in 1994. He dropped his own debut, Doe Or Die, in 1995. On nas's Illmatic, AZ handled the intro with Jungle (nas's brother), and on AZ's Doe Or Die, nas returns the favor on the intro. Nas is also featured on two other songs from the album, and one of them, Mo Money Mo Murder (Homicide) [Explicit], ended up being the last video short for the album, and also an introduction of their new clique(The Firm- az, nas, foxy brown, cormerga, and nature later on) at the time.

The lead single (AZ / SUGAR HILL) from his debut album enjoyed commercial success (going gold), but ever since then, AZ has not enjoyed any huge success- He never reached the status his lyrical abilities are meant to have taken him. A lot of people argued back then that he was better than nas on most of the songs they did together, and this has made them term him The Most Underrated Rapper. About.com listed AZ as the number 1 Most Under-appreciated Rapper. sohh.com also put him up on their list of Underrated rappers. I can remember reading where "Eminem" admitted to sounding like az on his Infinite album (The album he dropped in 1996 before he met dr dre); he said he was listening to a lot of AZ back then and it most have influenced his rap style. So what happened? Why didn't AZ blow up?

I don't know, but what i feel is that he was and still is super lyrical, but being a success does not stop there; you have to be able to make songs...banging songs, and i guess that is where AZ missed it. A lot of people  wanted Nas to stay in that Illmatic form, but they don't know that the sales of the album was the lowest of any nas album for many years. It was after he made the song with Lauryn Hill, If I Ruled The World (imagine that) that his album sales sky rocketed. It is not about going totally commercial, but having a song that can be played on radio and enjoyed by a lot more people than rap listeners (who don't buy albums). The If I Ruled The World song (which was a single from nas's second album- IT WAS WRITTEN) still was very lyrical, but it had a catchy hook from lauryn and a banging beat- i think AZ would have gone this route.

He has dropped 6 albums after his debut; Pieces of a Man (1998), 9 Lives (2001), Aziatic (2002), A.W.O.L. (2005), The Format (2006), and Undeniable (2008); all have been lyrically acclaimed, but none has been able to give AZ that limelight big break. If you didn't know, AZ perfected the multi-syllabic style of rap that Eminem now uses. It was always refreshing hearing him and nas together, and my friends and i would always argue on who had the better verse. Till this day, fans of both emcees are still calling for a duo album from the two.

He is currently working on Do Or Die 2, which he hopes to drop before the end of the year. Getting Kanye West and Dr Dre to produce on the album has been the delay, as he said in an interview late last year. Other than that, there is really no news on AZ.