“I Gave You Power”
By 1996, guns had been rapped about roughly 18 billion times, but never quite like this. On this treasured album cut from his sophomore LP It Was Written, Nas delivers one of his earliest and arguably best concept records in “I Gave You Power.” The story is told from the perspective of a remorseful gun that realizes how it’s constantly used for death and destruction. After deciding enough is enough, the gun jams itself in an effort to prevent the owner from killing another person over petty beef. But when the gun jams, the owner discards it and the momentary joy of having stopped yet another senseless murder is fleeting as the gun realizes it’s been picked up by another potential abuser.
