Nasir bin Olu Dara Jones known by his stage name Nas is the first husband of singer Kelis.
Nas and Kelis met at an MTV Video Music Awards party in 2002 and began dating.
The pair got engaged in 2004.
Nas and Kelis married in January 2005 in Atlanta.
However, in April 2009, Kelis filed for divorce, citing irreconcilable differences. Their divorce was finalized on May 21, 2010.
Nas and Kelis share a son, Knight Jones.
Nas is an American rapper and businessman. Nas has released fourteen studio albums since 1994, ten of which are certified gold, platinum or multi-platinum in the United States.
Born September 14, 1973 in Crown Heights, New York, Nas is the son of jazz and blues musician, Olu Dara and U.S. Postal Service worker, Fannie Ann Jones.
Rooted in East Coast hip hop, Nas is regarded as one of the greatest and most influential rappers of all time.
Nas’s musical career began in 1989 as he adopted the moniker of “Nasty Nas” and recorded demos for Large Professor. He was a featured artist on Main Source’s “Live at the Barbeque” (1991), also produced by Large Professor.
Nas’s debut album Illmatic (1994) received universal acclaim upon release, and is considered to be one of the greatest hip hop albums of all time; in 2021, the album was inducted into the Library of Congress’s National Recording Registry.
His second album It Was Written (1996) debuted atop the Billboard 200 and charted for four consecutive weeks; the album, along with its single “If I Ruled the World (Imagine That)” (featuring Lauryn Hill), catapulted Nas into an international success.
From 2001 to 2005, Nas was involved in a highly publicized feud with Jay-Z, popularized by the diss track “Ether”. After squashing the feud, Nas signed to Jay-Z’s Def Jam Recordings in 2006 and went in a more provocative, politicized direction with the albums Hip Hop Is Dead (2006) and his untitled 9th studio album (2008).
After receiving thirteen nominations, his 12th studio album, King’s Disease (2020), won him his first Grammy for Best Rap Album at the 63rd Annual Grammy Awards; he then followed it by releasing his 13th studio album, King’s Disease II (2021), as the album’s sequel. In the same year, his 14th studio album, Magic, was released on Christmas Eve.
Nas is also an entrepreneur through his record label; he serves as associate publisher of Mass Appeal magazine and the co-founder of Mass Appeal Records.