AZ
By All Music Guide
By All Music Guide
Born in Brooklyn as Anthony Cruz, AZ first came to the greater ap communitys attention in a big way after his stellar performance on Nas Lifes a Bitch in 1994. Given AZs similarity to Nas and the overwhelming response to Nas Illmatic album, it was just a matter of time before AZ would score a record deal, a feat he accomplished in 1995. The resulting debut album, Doe or Die, shook the New York hip-hop scene as Nas Illmatic and Mobb Deeps Infamous had done shortly before it. Like those albums, Doe or Die reveled in the street life -- hustling for cash, peddling drugs, violent encounters, mandatory boasting, struggling daily just to maintain -- but took a literate and thoughtful approach to the often exploitative gangsta motifs. Furthermore, like Nas, AZ had Pete Rock crafting the beats, which won the young rapper instant credibility among the hip-hop community.
When word hit the street that AZ was an official member of the supergroup known as the Firm, his status only rose higher. Anchored by Nas, Foxy Brown, Nature, and AZ on the mics, with Dr. Dre and the Trackmasters on the beats, it would seem as if the group could do no wrong. The groups 1997 album ended up being a surprise failure, though, buried under ridiculous expectations and too much hype. But AZs bad fortune didnt stop there. He returned a year later with his sophomore album, Pieces of a Man, an album that came and went relatively unnoticed and uncelebrated. For the next few years, AZ became a forgotten name. No longer with a major-label contract, he managed to release the little-heard S.O.S.A. record in 2000. It didnt sell many copies or resurrect his career but rather re-affirmed the fact that he was indeed a talented rapper whether the public and the industry wanted to acknowledge it or not.
Within a years time, AZ secured a new major-label relationship with Motown, a label that had never had much, if any, success with ap artists. Still, the Brooklyn rapper wouldnt let the labels reputation hold him back, as he illustrated on 9 Lives, unofficially billed as his comeback album. Though lacking big-name production and employing a skimpy roster of guest rappers, the album did showcase AZs lyrical prowess and his endurance, anchored by the sample-laced lead single Problems. Aziatic from 2002 received positive reviews overall and two years later by the double disc career overview Decade 1994-2004.
