The music we listen to in childhood, and especially as teenagers, deeply shapes our tastes as adults. It stays with us forever, and, for musicians, its traces are often evident in their own output. That makes it interesting to learn who some of the greats listened to while they were growing up, and, luckily for us, one of those greats, Nas, is happy to enlighten us.

Born in 1973, the ’80s was a big decade for a young Nas, so the music he was consuming during those days is worth knowing about. The East Coast rapper is very candid about his influences, and with sampling being a mainstay of the rap game, his interests range far an wide, even within the confines of a decade.

In 2012, the legendary rapper spoke to Complex magazine about 25 of his favourite ever albums, and naturally, plenty of them were from the ’80s.

Let’s take a look at the nine records he highlighted from that decade, listed in the order in which they came out.

Nas’ musical trip down the 1980s

9. Michael Jackson – Thriller (1982)

Produced by Quincy Jones and even featuring a Beatle in the form of Paul McCartney, Michael Jackson’s sixth studio album was a phenomenon. With hit songs ‘Billie Jean,’ ‘Beat It,’ ‘The Girl Is Mine,’ ‘Wanna Be Startin’ Somethin’,’ and the title track all jammed in there, among several other beloved songs, Thriller blew listeners away, becoming critically acclaimed and selling more copies than any other album in history. Any music fan around in the 1980s, even if they were as young as Nas was at the time, was inevitably shaped by it.

“Thriller was me being introduced to great music with the total package,” Nas told Complex, “which means the artist is cool, but he also looks like how he’s supposed to look. His history from the Jackson 5, all the soul added to the whole thing, and the record, of course, was groundbreaking and took over the world.”

8. Run-DMC – King of Rock (1985)

King of Rock, Run-DMC’s second album, is a key work in the development of hip hop, introducing elements of explicit rock music into the genre and opening up the possibilities for what could be done with it down the line. For a young Nas, still only 12 years old at the time of its release, the album was a thrilling thing to experience.

“That’s one of the first rap albums,” Nas said. “The commercial success with a different sound—it had rock, they were of a next phase, next plateau from the Furious Five and the Treacherous Three. They were the next thing, so they personified the next thing.” He then gushed about his love for two of their albums, saying, “And then [third album] Raising Hell showed how they evolved as hip-hop superstars. The greatest moment of my life being a rap fan was probably when King of Rock came out.”

7. Anita Baker – Rapture (1986)

When soul singer Anita Baker’s second album, Rapture, came out, Nas was entering his adolescence and dealing with all that comes with that. Naturally, that meant getting to grips with the tricky, fiercely intense business of love and romance, and Rapture was an ideal record for such a point in his young life.

“It’s just amazing,” Nas says of the album. “Rapture was just around the time of my little hustler days. Not just me as a hustler, but everyone around me was a hustler. If you had a girl back in those days, what she was singing to you made you really appreciate that girl and made you understand the love that you had for each other when you listen to her.” He added about the anxieties behind relationships and feelings, and how Baker’s voice served as a guiding light.

6. Boogie Down Productions – Criminal Minded (1987)

Criminal Minded, the first album by the KRS-One-led group Boogie Down Productions, is a classic of hip hop and one of the first ever gangsta rap records. It’s a hugely significant work for that reason alone, but, from Nas’ perspective, arguably its most important legacy is that it showed what rappers could do without major label backing.

“KRS-One is someone that artists need to study,” Nas told Complex. “The artists today are spoiled, and they want to go from nobody to the best who ever did it. It’s foolishness. When KRS-One made the classic Criminal Minded, he didn’t need Warner Brothers, he didn’t need MCA records.” He further added that people should study him because the record is an indelible classic, and he did it off the back of an independent label.

5. Eric B & Rakim – Paid in Full (1987)

Looking back now, Eric B & Rakim’s Paid in Full marked a high point for the golden age of hip hop. Rakim’s lyricism was extremely refined and intelligent, which had a huge bearing upon many rappers that came after him. But aside from the poetry of the words, Nas feels that the duo did something more ethereal with that album: they captured what life on the streets felt like.

“Eric B and Rakim epitomised and personified the street culture of New York and the rest of the nation,” he argued, noting how they made popular some of the most common tropes of hip hop today. “They wore Gucci before Gucci [was popular], they were counting money on the album cover, and they made it look cool. The style of the music was built for the streets. Rakim’s lyrics were the streets put into music,” he added.

4. MC Shan – Down by Law (1987)

MC Shan was a real inspiration for Nas, who is eight years his junior. Not only was Shan a pioneering rapper, but he was also from the very same public housing development in Queens that Nas grew up in. That meant when he first heard Shan’s debut record, Down By Law, it blew his mind. It showed him, among other things, what was possible for people from their background to achieve.

“That album changed my life,” Nas admitted, adding, “A big reason is because Shan is from Queensbridge. But still, his rap style, it helped me craft my rap style. The production with him and Marley opened my head to what I wanted to sound like, what I think I should sound like, and what I can potentially sound like.”

3. Big Daddy Kane – Long Live the Kane (1988)

Big Daddy Kane, during the height of his fame, had a reputation for being the favourite of many rappers, which is a rare thing. Considering who his contemporaries would have been at the time—artists like Public Enemy, Eric B & Rakim, and EPMD, all of whom released albums in 1988, the same year that Kane put out his debut Long Live the Kane—that’s a mighty feat.

Kane was another Queens guy, which, for a young person like Nas growing up there, was hugely inspirational. “I’m a big time fan of Big Daddy Kane,” Nas proclaimed, ‘Ain’t No Half Steppin’ and ‘Raw’ are great songs”.

2. Slick Rick – The Great Adventures of Slick Rick (1988)

Another classic album released in 1988 was The Great Adventures of Slick Rick, the titular Slick Rick’s first album. He was born and raised in London until he was 11, when his family relocated to the Bronx—but he always retained strong traces of his English accent, even as an adult. That really helped him to stand out as a rapper, but beyond that, his vivid storytelling and willingness to voice the characters in his songs really influenced the future of hip hop.

“It’s a musical storybook,” Nas said of The Great Adventures of Slick Rick, adding, “It’s from a New Yorker with an English accent with an imagination that’s never been heard of before in music. He’s just amazing.”

1. Public Enemy – It Takes A Nation of Millions to Hold Us Back (1988)

As they headed into the studio to record their second album, Public Enemy had one specific artist in mind: Marvin Gaye. His acclaimed album, What’s Going On, was renowned for its social commentary, and Public Enemy wanted to produce something similarly sharp and important. With It Takes A Nation of Millions to Hold Us Back, that is precisely what they did.

“It was something like I’ve never heard before,” reflected Nas, going into details about each member’s contribution, “Chuck D’s voice and what he was saying made me think. Flava Flav’s voice, his attitude, and how he supported Chuck. And the beats by the Bomb Squad were out of this world. Public Enemy took a strong position as a leader in the music community. They were brave.”