Nasir bin Olu Dara Jones^[11] was born in the Brooklyn borough of New York City on September 14, 1973, to African American parents.^[12][13] His father, Olu Dara (born Charles Jones III), is a jazz and blues musician from Mississippi. His mother, Fannie Ann (née Little; 1941–2002) was a U.S. Postal Service worker from North Carolina.^[14][15][16] He has a brother, Jabari Fret, who raps under the name Jungle and is a member of hip hopgroup Bravehearts. His father adopted the name "Olu Dara" from the Yoruba people.^[17] "Nasir" is an Arabic name meaning "helper and protector", while "bin" means "son of" in Arabic.^[18] He is a cousin of actors Yara Shahidi and Sayeed Shahidi.^[19]

As a young child, Nas and his family relocated to the Queensbridge housing project of the Long Island City community area in the borough of Queens. His neighbor, Willie "Ill Will" Graham, influenced his interest in hip hop by playing him records.^[20] His parents divorced in 1985,^[20] and he dropped out of school after the eighth grade.^[13] He educated himself about African culturethrough the Five-Percent Nation (a splinter group of the Nation of Islam)^[21] and the Nuwaubian Nation. In his early years, he played the trumpet and began writing his own rhymes.^[22]

As a teenager, Nas enlisted his best friend and upstairs neighbor Willie "Ill Will" Graham as his DJ. Nas initially went by the nickname "Kid Wave" before adopting his more commonly known alias of "Nasty Nas".^[23] In 1989, then-16-year-old Nas met up with producer Large Professor^[24] and went to the studio where Rakimand Kool G Rap were recording their albums. When they were not in the recording studio, Nas would go into the booth and record his own material. However, none of it was ever released.^[25][26]

In 1991, Nas performed on Main Source's "Live at the Barbeque", also produced by Large Professor. In mid-1992, Nas was approached by MC Serch of 3rd Bass, who became his manager and secured Nas a record deal with Columbia Records during the same year. Nas made his solo debut under the name of "Nasty Nas" on the single "Halftime" from MC Serch's soundtrack for the film Zebrahead.^[13] Called the new Rakim,^[27] his rhyming skills attracted a significant amount of attention within the hip hop community.

In 1994, Nas's debut album, Illmatic, was released. It featured production from Large Professor, Pete Rock, Q-Tip, LES and DJ Premier, as well as guest appearances from Nas's friend AZ and his father Olu Dara. The album spawned several singles, including "The World Is Yours", "It Ain't Hard to Tell", and "One Love". Shaheem Reid of MTV News called Illmatic "the first classic LP" of 1994.^[28] In 1994, Nas also recorded the song "One on One" for the soundtrack to the film Street Fighter.^[29] In his book To the Break of Dawn: A Freestyle on the Hip Hop Aesthetic, William Jelani Cobb writes of Nas's impact at the time:

Nas, the poetic sage of the Queensbridge projects, was hailed as the second coming of Rakim—as if the first had reached his expiration date. [...] Nas never became 'the next Rakim,' nor did he really have to. Illmatic stood on its own terms. The sublime lyricism of the CD, combined with the fact that it was delivered into the crucible of the boiling East-West conflict, quickly solidified [his] reputation as the premier writer of his time.^[30]

Illmatic was awarded best album of 1994 by The Source.^[31] Steve Huey of AllMusic described Nas's lyrics on Illmatic as "highly literate" and his raps "superbly fluid regardless of the size of his vocabulary", adding that Nas is "able to evoke the bleak reality of ghetto life without losing hope or forgetting the good times".^[32] About.com ranked Illmatic as the greatest hip hop album of all time,^[5] and Prefix magazine praised it as "the best hip hop record ever made".^[6]

In 1995, Nas did guest performances on the albums Doe or Die by AZ, The Infamous by Mobb Deep, Only Built 4 Cuban Linx by Raekwon and 4,5,6 by Kool G Rap. Nas also parted ways with manager MC Serch, enlisted Steve Stoute, and began preparation for his second album, It Was Written. The album was chiefly produced by Tone and Poke of the Trackmasters, as Nas consciously worked towards a crossover-oriented sound. Columbia Records had begun to pressure Nas to work towards more commercial topics, such as that of The Notorious B.I.G. and had become successful by releasing street singles that still retained radio-friendly appeal. The album also expanded on Nas's Escobar persona, who lived a Scarface/Casino-esque lifestyle. On the other hand, references to Scarface protagonist Tony Montana notwithstanding, Illmatic was more about his early life growing up in the projects.^[13]

It Was Written was released in mid-1996. Two singles, "If I Ruled the World (Imagine That)" (featuring Lauryn Hill of The Fugees) and "Street Dreams" (including a remix with R. Kelly), were instant hits.^[33] These songs were promoted by big-budget music videos directed by Hype Williams, making Nas a common name among mainstream hip-hop. Reviewing It Was Written, Leo Stanley of Allmusic believed the album's rhymes were not as complex as those of Illmatic, but still thought Nas had "deepened his talents, creating a complex series of rhymes that not only flow, but manage to tell coherent stories as well."^[34] It Was Written featured the debut of the Firm, a supergroup consisting of Nas, AZ, Foxy Brown, and Cormega.^{[citation needed]}

Signed to Dr. Dre's Aftermath Entertainment label, the Firm began working on their debut album. Halfway through the production of the album, Cormega was fired from the group by Steve Stoute, who had unsuccessfully attempted to force Cormega to sign a deal with his management company. Cormega subsequently became one of Nas's most vocal opponents and released a number of underground hip hopsingles dissing Nas, Stoute, and Nature, who replaced Cormega as the fourth member of the Firm.^[35] Nas, Foxy Brown, AZ, and Nature Present The Firm: The Album was finally released in 1997 to mixed reviews. The album failed to live up to its expected sales despite being certified platinum, and the members of the group disbanded to go their separate ways.^[36]

During this period, Nas was one of four rappers (the others being B-Real, KRS-One and RBX) in the hip-hop supergroup Group Therapy, who appeared on the song "East Coast/West Coast Killas" from Dr. Dre Presents the Aftermath.^[37]