Whether hip-hop artist Nas discourses on street life, politics or love, you can always count on one thing: He is not going to pull any punches.

Nas' latest project, the double-CD "Street's Disciple" (Ill Will Records/Columbia), is no exception. The Nov. 30 release finds the Queens, N.Y., griot picking up the personal threads woven throughout his critically acclaimed "God's Son." On that 2002 album, he waxed rhymes about the loss of his mother and newfound love with Star Trak/Zomba Label Group artist Kelis.

With marriage around the corner, a more content Nas greets listeners on the second half of "Street's Disciple," his eighth studio album. But on the first disc, the 30-year-old channels Nasty Nas, the vivid storyteller who crafted the seminal 1994 debut "Illmatic."

As Nas explains, the new project tells the saga of a man married to the streets, the changes he is going through and the need for a woman in his life.

"I wanted to approach this album from a storytelling vibe again," he says. "The songs deal with where I believe men's heads should be at, not falling into bulls--t."

That's a step back from three years ago, when Nas found himself in the midst of a high-profile mouth-off with fellow New York rapper Jay-Z. Out of that battle/rhyme contest emerged "Stillmatic," whose opening track, "Ether," countered Jay-Z's tour de force "The Takeover."

MOVING ON

"Battling back and forth is tired," Nas says. "But I won't diss the game for the battles because that's what happens on the block: One day you may bump heads or there's some miscommunication. But life is about getting yours and moving to the next level. And hip-hop should be the same way: moving to the next level and moving beyond the battles."

On the new album, vestiges of his previous personas surface on such tracks as the cutting "Coon Picnic (These Are Our Heroes)." It satirically excoriates the new millennium African-American stereotypes. "American Way" admonishes government officials as well as hip-hop artists new to the political arena. Nas then entreats people to "Live Now," which ends with the arresting beep of a patient flat-lining.

The second CD in the double set has a more personal tone. Nas ruminates on his sexual past and envisions his impending marriage on "Remember the Times" and "Getting Married," pays tribute to old-school rap and kindred-spirit jazz on "U.B.R. (Unauthorized Biography of Rakim)" and "Bridging the Gap."

An MTV regular, Nas says balancing street credibility and commercial success exerts less pressure than what he puts on himself. "The pressure comes from me," he says. "After you put out a lot of work, you have to challenge yourself to do something new that feels good or makes you cry. That's what I want my music to do. I beat myself up about that a lot. Hip-hop fans aren't the audience that was there when hip-hop was real in the '80s."

Nas is eyeing a return to acting -- something he hasn't done since his debut in the 1999 movie "Belly." And he's contemplating a follow-up to the 2000 gold-certified compilation "QB Finest" as well as recording other artists on Ill Will.

"I plan to be occupying myself with a lot of different things 10 years from now," Nas says. "It's hard to maintain a career in hip-hop as an artist, but I still plan to be doing that."