remains as hot as August concrete and Doggystyle as cold as ice – meaning that Dre and Snoop will not be returning as the Man. But the race ain't over, as a horde of major albums have recently been released or are slated for the last half of '94: Ice Cube and Dr. Dre's Helter Skelter, Pete Rock and C.L. Smooth's The Main Ingredients, Coolio's It Takes a Thief and Shyheim's AKA the Rugged Child, as well as albums from Smif n' Wessun, Redman, 2Pac, the Lady of Rage, the Method Man, Rakim and a solo album by A Tribe Called Quest's Phife. But they'll all be chasing the MC with a street buzz so loud it's threatening to silence the Death Row bass thump on Broadway: Nas.

The humming began once the hottest producers in New York – DJ Premier, Pete Rock, the Large Professor, Q-Tip, L.E.S. – completed their parts on Illmatic, and Nas stepped to their tracks (many smooth and mellow, a few hard and biting, all mid- to low-tempo) and vaulted himself into the elite group of MCs. Not because of an ultrabutter flow and boldly distinctive voice like Q-Tip or Slick Rick but because of sharp articulation, finely detailed lyrics and a controlled tone reminiscent of Rakim. Those sounds and Nas' no-nonsense urban tales pair Ill's every beautiful moment with its harsh antithesis. From "One Love," Nas' letter to homies in jail – "So, stay civilized/Time flies/Though, incarcerated, your mind dies/I hate it when your moms cries/It kinda makes me wanna murder" – to the end of "Life's a Bitch," when his father, Olu Dara, steps in over the beat with a muted trumpet, searching for the tone with which Nas expressed the futility of his life, it's all like a rose stretching up between cracks in the sidewalk, calling attention to its beauty, calling attention to the lack of it everywhere else.

If it's a butter flow you crave while cruising for daisy dukes this summer, Shyheim is your man, even though he's only 15. For kids in hip-hop, like women, it's nearly impossible to become the Man, because if you don't sound like a man, you can't be Him. Shyheim tries to bolster his credentials by announcing often on AKA that he's down with Wu-Tang, but the Method Man and Ol' Dirty Bastard don't rhyme on the album, so who cares? Shy is a kiddie rapper with an erratic album and a childish tone, making him sound like a novelty whose notoriety stems