#the flyest

[liquorisquickerr]

[dracontiar]

Congratulations to The Savior’s Champion on one successful year! Felt like doodling up a quick character portrait of Tobias for @jennamoreci in honor of her book’s 1-year anniversary. I was in such a reading slump last year, and this book snapped me right out of it, it’s so good! If you’re a fan of fantasy with some violence and super-sweet romance, check it out. :D 

[0gz]

[juhnkit]

Motivational Music in the Morning ... “The Flyest” by Nas feat. AZ (Audio) ... from the Album: Stillmatic (2001)

#MMitM1 #Rituals

Released: December 18, 2001 Label: Ill Will Records / Columbia Records Samples: “Night Moves” by Frank McDonald and Chris Rae, and “Child of Tomorrow” by Badder Than Evil. 

The Two “Flyest” Songs: There are actually two Nas songs with “Flyest” in the title. “The Flyest” from Stillmatic (2001) featuring AZ is one. “Nas’ Angels… The Flyest” featuring Pharrell Williams appeared on the Charlie’s Angels: Full Throttle soundtrack in 2003. You’re most likely asking about the Stillmatic version with AZ, so that’s the one being broken down here.

Who is AZ: AZ — born Anthony Cruz in Brooklyn — is one of the most consistently underrated MCs in East Coast hip-hop history. He appeared on Nas’ Illmatic classic “Life’s a Bitch” in 1994 and delivered one of the most celebrated guest verses in hip-hop history — a meditation on mortality and legacy so precise that it launched his career immediately. His debut album Doe or Die (1995) is a masterpiece of East Coast lyricism. His partnership with Nas — both from the same Queensbridge world — produced some of their finest individual work. The song opens with a pre-verse conversation: AZ says “They wrote a book on your life” — Nas responds “Right” — AZ continues “You think anybody’ll read it?” — Nas: “No fuckin doubt!” — AZ: “Let’s make history, homey.” This conversation captures the specific energy between them — two men who know they are operating at the highest level, who understand their own significance, and who are not shy about claiming it.

The Album — Stillmatic: Stillmatic was released December 18, 2001 by Ill Will and Columbia Records. It debuted at number 8 on the Billboard 200 and sold over 342,600 in its first week, eventually selling over 2 million copies in the United States. The release was Nas’ attempt to reestablish his credibility after the critical disappointment of Nastradamus (1999), with the title signifying his intentions to continue where Illmatic left off. The Source awarded the album a perfect five-mic rating. Stillmatic was one of the great comeback albums in hip-hop history — arriving in the same year as Jay-Z’s Blueprint and establishing both as the definitive rivalry of the era. “Ether” — Nas’ devastating response to Jay-Z’s “Takeover” — was the centerpiece, but “The Flyest” demonstrated that Stillmatic wasn’t only about the beef. It was also about reclaiming the swaggering, lyrical confidence that Nas and AZ represented at their peak.

What it’s about: “The Flyest” is a celebration of presence, confidence, and status — delivered by two MCs who genuinely believe they are the best at what they do and are not being subtle about it. The title is a declaration: we are the flyest. Not among the best. The best. Period. The song describes a life of luxury, loyalty, and status — wealth, power, desirability — with the chorus emphasizing that they are the flyest gangsters, with women lusting after them and rivals fearing them. The song touches on themes of loyalty and brotherhood, with references to holding the Quran signaling the importance of their Muslim faith alongside the street content. The Quran reference embedded in the song is important context for understanding both Nas and AZ at this point in their lives. Both men had been moving toward Islam — influenced by the Five Percent Nation’s teachings and, in Nas’ case, a deeper engagement with Islamic study. The holding of the Quran in a song that otherwise celebrates worldly status is not contradictory in their world — it is the full picture of men navigating multiple identities simultaneously. The intro conversation — they wrote a book on your life, you think anybody’ll read it? — is the most revealing moment. Nas and AZ are acknowledging their own cultural significance with the ease of men who have fully accepted it. The book has been written. People will read it. They are making history. This is not arrogance in the sense of delusion. This is accurate self-assessment delivered without false modesty.

The Nas and AZ Partnership: The Nas and AZ chemistry is one of the most organic in hip-hop. They grew up in the same world, developed similar aesthetics, and brought out the best in each other without competition diminishing either. AZ’s verse on “Life’s a Bitch” from Illmatic is still discussed as one of the finest performances in the genre’s history. Their reunion on “The Flyest” is the reunion of two men who have survived the 1990s, navigated the industry, weathered criticism, and arrived on the other side still standing and still the flyest.

Emotional Ties: The emotional register of “The Flyest” is joy — specifically the joy of two men who know exactly what they are, who have done the work to become it, and who are allowing themselves to celebrate it without qualification. After the grinding, survival-oriented emotional weight of Nas’ catalog — the existential dread of Illmatic, the battles of Stillmatic — “The Flyest” is the exhale. It is the moment when you stop defending your position and simply inhabit it. There is also the specific emotional quality of the brotherhood between Nas and AZ — two people who made history together, who have watched each other’s careers unfold over nearly a decade by this point, who are now standing together and saying: look where we got.

————— Theological Viewpoints —————

— “They Wrote a Book on Your Life” — The Theology of Living Legacy: The opening conversation positions Nas as a person whose life is already worth documenting — whose story already has historical significance while he is still alive to hear it. The theological tradition has complicated feelings about this kind of living legacy — the prophets who became famous in their own time sometimes found that fame became a burden, a distortion of the original calling. But the tradition also celebrates testimony — the public acknowledgment of what God has done in and through a person’s life. The book on Nas’ life is the testimony of what Queensbridge, what hip-hop, what survival and artistry can produce.

— The Quran in the Flyest Song — Faith and Swag Coexisting: The holding of the Quran in the middle of a celebration of status and material success is theologically interesting precisely because it refuses the separation of the sacred and the secular. The Islamic tradition does not recognize a domain of life that is exempt from divine governance — the Quran is relevant to the marketplace as much as the mosque, to the street corner as much as the prayer room. Nas and AZ invoking sacred text in a song about being the flyest is not hypocrisy. It is the insistence that their entire lives — including the celebration, the swag, the status — fall under the canopy of their faith.

— “Let’s Make History, Homey” — The Prophetic Consciousness of the Moment:** AZ’s pre-verse declaration — let’s make history — is the prophetic consciousness of the artist who knows they are operating at the level of genuine cultural significance. The prophets in the Hebrew tradition spoke with this consciousness — they understood that what they were saying would outlast them, that they were participating in something larger than their individual lives. Nas and AZ have this consciousness about their art. They are not making music for the moment. They are making history. The theological tradition honors this seriousness of purpose even when the content is, on the surface, about being the flyest.

— Confidence as a Spiritual Posture: The theological tradition has always navigated the tension between humility and confidence. The false humility that denies genuine gifts in order to appear modest is not the same as true humility — it is actually a form of dishonesty. The person who has been given extraordinary gifts and refuses to acknowledge them denies what has been given to them. Nas and AZ on “The Flyest” are not being arrogant in the spiritually dangerous sense — they are not claiming to be more than they are. They are claiming to be exactly what they are. This is the confidence of people who have done the work, developed the craft, and can stand in it without apology.

— The Reunion as Covenant Renewal: The reunion of Nas and AZ on Stillmatic — after years of parallel careers, after “Life’s a Bitch” established both their reputations, after the industry cycles that had separated them — is a covenant renewal. They made something together that changed hip-hop. Coming back together on Stillmatic, at the moment of Nas’ critical comeback, is the renewal of that original bond. This is the theological structure of reunion — the return to the covenant, the acknowledgment that what was made between two people does not expire with time or distance.

Knowledge Shared: 1. Accurate self-knowledge is not arrogance — knowing what you are, what you have built, what your work has meant — and claiming it clearly — is not the same as pride in the spiritually destructive sense. False modesty about genuine achievement is its own distortion. Know what you are. 2. They’ll write a book on your life — live accordingly — the question isn’t whether the story will be told. It’s whether the story will be worth telling. Live the kind of life that, when documented, demonstrates something true about what human beings are capable of. 3. Comeback is possible from any position — Nas arrived at Stillmatic after two albums that critics considered serious steps backward. “The Flyest” is the sound of a man who has returned to himself, who has found the level again, who refused to accept that his best work was behind him. The knowledge is: the critical opinion of a moment does not define the entire career. 4. Your partner’s success does not diminish yours — AZ’s verse on “Life’s a Bitch” launched his career from Nas’ album. Nas’ comeback on Stillmatic featured AZ prominently. They elevated each other consistently over a decade. The knowledge is that genuine creative partnerships are not zero-sum — your collaborator’s shine reflects on you, and yours on them. 5. Faith and fly can coexist — the Quran reference is not decorative. It is the acknowledgment that the same person who is the flyest is also the person who holds the sacred text. These identities are not in conflict. The full human being contains both, and the work that represents the full human being is always richer than the work that represents only part of it. 6. Make history consciously — AZ’s declaration let’s make history before the verse begins is the knowledge of an artist who understands what they are doing as they are doing it. Conscious participation in the creation of something significant — rather than stumbling into significance accidentally — produces better work. Know that what you are making matters. 7. The flyest is a state of mind before it’s a state of wallet — the confidence, the precision, the standard of craft, the refusal to accept mediocrity — these are the qualities that make someone the flyest, not just the material possessions the song also describes. The material is the symbol of the internal standard. Maintain the standard.

#NAS #AZ #TheFlyest #Stillmatic #2001

[sadjustice]

Listen to The Flyest by O.T. Genasis #np on #SoundCloud

I'm the shit bitch

[uhitsveronica]

letterstolisaa replied to your photo:my competition is myself, therefore i ain’t...

you were just a tiny bit fly today bae.

only a tiny bit, tuh