By B Malkani

The Forum, Kentish Town, London - 22 February 2003.

It was a cold winter day in North West London, (sounds like the beginning of a fairy tale, I know, but it was cold, damn cold, anyway...), as my friends and I were approaching the ticket barriers at the station, there were groups of ticket touts selling Nas tickets for £60 +. As tickets were going for so much and the show was all sold out, I had a feeling it was gonna be a hot night. Arriving early for once (6:30pm), I assumed that we were sure to get a place right at the front, but as I approached 'The Forum' venue, I suddenly got a different impression. The line was outrageously long - we could not believe what we saw, our hopes of getting to the front were slowly looking doubtful.

Eventually, we entered the venue and hit the bar - we then swiftly moved into the front of the stage to see what positions were available; I was quite surprised to obtain a front row position, even though it was on the extreme left hand side. DJ 279 and Dizzy Rascal were keeping the crowd entertained by playing classic new skool hip-hop; everything including joints from Mobb Deep, Noreaga and Biggie to today's club bangers including Clipse and Erick Sermon. Surprisingly, when the DJ put Nelly on, the crowd just booed the record off! It was crazy and clear how every Nas fan felt about Nelly. However every time a 50 cent joint came on, the place was rockin'.

I felt the DJ slot was far too long! Fans were getting impatient and stopped dancing. Most people at the front were chanting "where the f*** is Nas?" But as soon as Nas's DJ L.E.S bounced on stage, it was clear that Mr. Illmatic was about to appear. The DJ dropped his intro; Nas strolled on stage with one member from The Bravehearts and another one of Nas' people. The opening track was the Eminem produced track, "The Cross". Nas made it clear that he was not one of those 5 minute performers and wanted to perform all his tracks - everything from "Illmatic" to the very latest "God's Son". He began to proceed with one of my favourite songs of his latest, "Get Down". After, he chose to do songs from his early era, including "The World is Yours", "Life's a B****" and "One Love". He also moved onto popular joints including "Street Dreams", "Nas is Like" and "Got ur Self a…"

There were moments where the crowd thought that Nas finished his performance as he went off stage a couple of times. However, it was all a tease as well as an excuse to change his outfit. He kept coming back to feed his hungry crowd for more.

There were various memorable moments. I think one of the most memorable songs was when Nas performed "One Mic" - the crowd stayed quiet as he knelt down with a towel over his head with a single spotlight over him, which made the performance more intense. Additionally, I found the performance of "Thugz Mansion" deep, as there was a moment up in the Forum where we took a moment to remember 2pac (R.I.P.).

The thug came out of Nas when he decided to announce his engagement to the audience; fans were screaming out "Kellis", and perhaps was expecting her to make a special guest appearance and maybe perform the song "Hey Nas", but instead he decided to pull out a blunt and announce he was in fact married to "Mary Jane" (weed). The crowd went wild. I also thought it was quite daring for Nas to publicize that he had so much hatred for one man in this world. The DJ was just about to drop Nas's diss to Jay Z, "Ether", but Nas decided to carry on by saying there was another person in this world he hated even more than Jigga…." F*** George Bush" he told the crowd to scream, the audience participated. The DJ finally dropped "Ether", which fans were most definitely feeling. Other joints that rocked the place were, "You Owe Me", "If I Ruled the World", "Rewind" and the more recent track, "I Can". But off course, the evening could not be complete until the hot single, "Made you Look" was performed, which was accompanied by break-dancers.

Nas established that he could demonstrate real hip-hop by putting on a show that was entertaining, political and cultured. He no longer has to prove himself as one of the leading lyricists in today's hip-hop world, as his latest album and Saturday night's performance displays he is "a leader, at last".

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