"Made You Look" is the first single from Nas' 2002 album, God's Son. Built around several samples lifted from the Incredible Bongo Band's "Apache", the single was important in establishing Nas' direction following his battle with Jay-Z and the Stillmatic album in its reliance on intricate lyricism and an old-school aesthetic. The song reached much commercial success, on the level of "I Can", and it was a sizeable hit among urban audiences and remains one of the more popular tracks on the God's Son album. It is his third highest charting single to date. Lyrically, "Made You Look" is similar to much of the materialNas was releasing in the early 2000s with its loose, complex, free-associative rhymes conveying obscure, wide-ranging themes: partying, boasting, hyping Nas and his legacy. The beat for "Made You Look" was also used on the song "In My Bed" by British singer Amy Winehouse. Both songs were produced by Salaam Remi.
Remix
A remix surfaced a few weeks after the initial release of the song. The remix featured Yonkers native Jadakiss and Atlanta's Ludacris. The song also featured a new verse from Nas. This track, however, stayed in the mixtape circuit and did not make it onto the album. Tha Dogg Pound member Kurupt has used the beat for "Made You Look" on a mixtape track called "Take Off". Ja Rule used the beat on his mixtape, Loose Change, which aimed insults towards 50 Cent and the entire Aftermath/Shady camp in 2003. During the song, Ja Rule rhymes in a similar pattern to the original song. La Coka Nostra used the beat for a track, with the same title, on their 2009 mixtape The Audacity of Coke Mixtape; featuring two verses by Ill Bill and Slaine. Snoop Dogg, Jadakiss and his group D-Block used the beat as well. Diggy Simmons, son of Run-DMC's Rev Run, released a freestyle to the beat, resulting in him being signed to Atlantic Records.
Use in media
This song has been featured in the 2009 video gameSkate 2, after being featured in Paul Rodriguez's part in Girl "Yeah Right", along with "Get Down". It was also featured in the 2015 video game NBA 2K16. The song was used in promotions for the Netflix show "Luke Cage". Also, this is the theme song to the podcast "Upon Further Review with Brian Brennan". It was featured during the credits of the 2018 Netflix movie "Game Over, Man!"
Acclaim
In 2005 Blender ranked "Made You Look" as the 175th best song from the 1980s through the 2000s. They also named it the 16th best single of 2003.
Pitchfork Media ranked it as the 47th best single of 2002.
