Nas

Nas killed his Coachella set this year. Donning garb more appropriate for an East Coast winter than a West Coast spring, Nas immaculately (thanks teleprompter) ran through his Sistine Chapel of a debut, Illmatic. Even this jaded hip-hop head couldn't help but feel a rush when Nas pushed his pen past the margin.  Serendipitously, I happened to stumble onto worldwide digger and professional ass-mover DJ Kon's amazingly deft reworking of perhaps the greatest Nas song of all time, "The World Is Yours." Beginning with multi-instrumentalist Yuki "Ukey" Kanesaka's instrumental cover of the jam, Kon laced Nas's a capella rhymes over it to construct a song both grimy and formal.  You can play this while smoking or watching soap operas with your grandma -- now that's ill.