The Lyrical presence of Nas was clearly evident from the first lines: "Freedom or jail, clips inserted,/ a baby's bein' born Same time my man is murdered,/ the beginning and end"In the third verse of the song, Nas uses similes to describe his prowess. These include: "I'm like a whole lot of loot, I'm like crisp money / Corporate accounts from a rich company / I'm like ecstasy for ladies, I'm like all races / combined in one man; like the '99 summer jam."

In the 14 Deadly Secrets by DJ Premier, Primo said:

And I found that sample of "Nas Is Like", and I broke it into 3 parts, scratched it live to the drumbeat that I already had, with the little chirpin' birds and from there, "Nas Is Like" was born, man...

The song is also notable for featuring one of the most sought-after samples by cratediggers. For almost a decade since the track's release, the main sample used by DJ Premier remained unknown. However, April 2008 an unnnamed MP3 file featuring the original sample used was uploaded to the Internet by Dusty Kid from Strictly Breaks. Right after, the sample was identified as "Cantata of New Life" by John Rydgren. However, it was later revealed that the track was actually John Rydgren and Bob R. Way's 1966 song "What Child Is This?", from their record Thoughts on the Carols.

Other than this, the song also contains scratched vocal samples from Nas' previous songs "It Ain't Hard to Tell" from 1994 and "Street Dreams" from 1996. The song also samples bird chirps from Don Robertson's "Why" and a vocal sample from Biz Markie's "Nobody Beats the Biz".

The song's music video directed by Nick Quested shows Nas rapping in the Queensbridge projects and features a cameo by NBA player Ron Artest.

"Nas Is Like" was positively received on a commercial and critical level. It reached number 86 on the Billboard Hot 100 and number 14 on the Canadian Singles Chart. M.F. DiBella of Allmusic justifies the success of "Nas Is Like" stating: "Superproducer Premier comes to save the day...["Nas Is Like" is] nothing short of Illmatic perfection. "Nas Is Like"'s symphonic composition is the perfect complement for an MC of Nas' supreme vocal quality and precise lyrics."

The song's popularity caused various songs to borrow "Nas Is Like"'s beat, structure and lyrics:

Nas - Nas Is Like Official Hip Hop Music Video