i actually liked the “slave and master” beat, though. all in all, i think that’s the best song on the album. the beat was somewhat regal, but simplistic.

i think the reason why we are continually let down by nas’ albums is not only his tendency to throw himself on the highest pedestal, but also his beat selection. a BIG part of being a great rapper is having an ear for beats.

the law of diminishing returns has not been good to mr. jones. it’s time to take that throne away; illmatic was almost fifteen years ago.

Still haven’t heard the Nas record, so I’ll defer to your opinion for the time being, but c’mon — Marc Bolan has gotta make up for Gene Simmons, easy.

sigh

the dumb are mostly intrigued by the drum

You already read my take on the matter and my review. I don’t consider it to be a great album by any stretch of the imagination and it sure isn’t music you ride around to or play in you iPod regularly. You already know about me. I’m the type of dude who can’t fuck with a girl that hasn’t seen Taxi Driver and she claims to be a film major. I’m NOT the kind a dude you wanna smoke a blunt with by ANY stretch of the imagination.

Dart Adams= Nas fan

LOL.

One.

The soul purpose of this album, is POETICAL..SPOKEN WORD! If you are basing your decision on beats, then you are lost! It doesn’t matter if you are white, green, blue, yellow, black..You are LOST! This album is pure classic…heavy metaphors, alliterations, conceptual, tackling many issues on race, America, stereotypes..etc

WHAT ALBUM ARE YOU LISTENING TO?

You’re completely right, Ray Jackson. Having to provide good “music” should be completely out of discussion on a “music record.”

Makes complete sense. I hope you don’t mind, I’m going to go listen to people jack-hammer the sidewalk outside my window now. It sounds fantastic. Four stars.

totally agree with you here Jeff. Now that this turd is out, the new guard’s (Wale, Cool Kids, Jay Electronica) album’s are coming soon, I’m afraid our man Nas is going to enter a new phase of kicking and screaming. He’ll be an old codger who’d rather bring down the ship than save any of the passengers. Poor Nas, we tried to tell him for years what would happen if he didn’t shape up. Pop culture will move on, he’s spent all his goodwill, and I’ll be goddamn if he got more than he should have. He has only himself to blame, and that should scare us all. He won’t get anymore chances now that there is some legitimate talent coming out. Say hello to Koch records Nas. I’m sad.

Wow, that was as defensive a review as I’ve read from you, Jeff. I agree that the album is mediocre, but not for all of the reasons you state. And you lost me when you equated the Black Panthers with the neo-cons (and John Howard Griffin with Brother Ali). But that’s a difference of political opinion, about which we can agree to disagree. Incidentally, I’d suggest that Obama’s ideology, like any politician’s, is about getting into office more than it is about uniting cultures, etc., etc. The fact that his campaign has been subjected to so much old-fashioned racist abuse all the same suggests that Nas’ message might not be as anachronistic as you claim.

You’re spot-on about his beat selection, though. But I also don’t think Nas is capable anymore, at this stage of his career, of putting together a solid album. Hell, even an entire song is starting to seem like a stretch for him. I’m always struck by how much more I’m impressed these days by his guest verses than anything on his solo and/or full-length efforts.

Complexity of beats has nothing to do with rap and has probably led rap in the wrong direction. I would rather in all honesty listen to a drum and a snare and a fucker killing it than some overproduced mess. Nas has never had good beat selection. The ability to rap over shit tracks is probably Nas’s strongest asset. You can not fault the intro or testify and for that matter the progressive beat used in sly fox. Obviously a concept album, Nas does what he has been doing since he raped on Illmatic. You know what hes always gonna say, but you do not know how much he is gonna say.

Jeff,

it’s looking like your picking up a little douchebag-idiot slack from Tom Breihan’s comments section now that ol’ boy is gone.

“Jeff,

it’s looking like your picking up a little douchebag-idiot slack from Tom Breihan’s comments section now that ol’ boy is gone.”

Give me your huddled masses, yearning to breathe free.

I guess we’ll just have to disagree on what Nas achieves. I think his observations AND contemplations are on point. I haven’t heard anyone address the transformation of a narrow-minded urban youth to a revolutionary thinker, the mistreatment women, and the barbaric practices of a “free” nation as eloquently as Nas does on “America” for a while, and he accomplish that on one track. Again, Nas discussing how he changed from thinking bling and hustling as being his ultimate goal in life might just be the most interesting and uplifting aspect of the album.

I also disagree with your assessment of what Obama’s candidacy really means for the future of race relations in America. I think it gives reason for optimism, but a guarded one; his election is not going to fundamentally change the institutional racism and classism that faces Americans today, at least in the short-term, IMO. But that’s an issue of politics more than it is music, as another commenter mentioned (though based on a poll just featured on the New York Times, it would appear most others agree with me).

I do vote that Nas lets Jay-Z or Ghostface pick his beats for all of his following projects, though.

“No one is questioning Nas’ writing ability–he’s still the best WRITER in hip hop history. But if you’re so caught up in his written word, then you should email Nasir and ask him to write a book, not make a rap album. In order to be good/great, a rap album neeeds good/great beats. The past few Nas albums have had about 5-6 good/great beats out of 15+ songs–not a good ratio.

Public Enemy’s message would not have a made a dent if they were rapping over beats like “Blunt Ashes.””

Some good points you make…except for “Blunt Ashes” which i think is a pretty good track.

Here’s the thing about Nas…whether you like his beat selection or don’t like it, he’s always been pretty consistent in the style of beats he chooses. Almost every Nas record has the same feeling to it: some of the beat are sick, some are fairly mediocre.

I used to complain about it myself, until i realized and accepted that Nas will always do what Nas wants to do. It’s not that he has a bad ear for beats, it’s just that the style of beats he likes often doesn’t mesh well with the more contemporary style of beats that most people seem to prefer.

If you don’t like the beats on this record, it’s not because Nas dropped the ball on production for this album. It’s because Nas picked out the beats that HE WANTED to rap over, not the beats we may have wanted him to choose.

What i just don’t understand about this album review is how this guy could so casually dismiss the lyrical content, when Nas’s world-play and flow are as good they’ve ever been on this record, imo.

But whatever…to each his own.

peace.

PS…sorry for some of the comments i made in my initial posts.

I get very sensitive when it comes to two hip hop acts: Nas and the Wu Tang Clan. They’re like family to me.

…even though they don’t know who the fuck i am.

“No one’s questioning whether or not Nas is a great rapper. He is. That’s not the problem.”

Well, actually there are plenty of people who do that but they also tend to favor rappers like Young Jeezy and Cam’ron so fuck ‘em on principle.

“This is just a terrible album and if you believe otherwise, you obviously your standards are too low.”

DUDE. Are you effing serious? Between you and Ian Cohen…

Your tastes and opinions are complete and utter bullshit.

As soon as you start making sweeping and completely unfounded statements like the one above, everything you say is totally moot.

Wait, I’ve got it: “The hip-hop writing on this site is terrible, and if you believe otherwise, you obviously your standards are too low”

PS: It doesn’t matter that you’re a ‘white boy’ and know nothing about what Nas is talking about. You just have bad taste and some kind of inflated sense of self. Oh right, standard blog procedure.

WACK

i haven’t read all the responses, so my bad if i’m repeating anything. i just did a post about my thoughts on the album over at my blog too.

but it’s funny because i also dislike the album but i really disagree with your take on it. to me, this album proves that Nas can be a really smart motherfucker when he wants to be. i don’t like the stuff like this he’s done in the past, especially “American Way” and “These Are Our Heroes,” but this album is extremely focused and i find myself hard pressed to disagree with the guy, besides the fact that he could’ve gotten at FOX News a lot better on “Sly Fox” and that yeah, Farrakhan isn’t someone i respect from what i know about him, but that song’s more about being a revolutionary in general than straight glorification. the sampled bit is the only part that directly references him.

but i agree that the beats are sleepy at best, wack at worst (and there’s really not that much of a difference,) outside of “America,” “N.I.G.G.E.R.” and “Fried Chicken.” and Nas’s flow is just too one-note, i think he makes a lot of good points here but that’s not enough on its own to give the album replay value.

i am against looking past what this album brings up in the belief that whites, blacks and Latinos are all “equal” now though. not because i’m some far-right nut against racial equality, but because people’re kidding themselves if they think things’re peachy between the races in America now. it’s just that now it manifests itself in socioeconomic divides and cultural differences that’ve prevented us from seeing eye to eye on certain issues.

also i didn’t really hear anything radical or Marxist here at all, the most militant parts are the Farrakhan reference and the “kill some rednecks” deal on “Testify,” which doesn’t sound completely serious to me. actually, that whole song sounds like one of those half-serious, kinda goofy/misguided Nas concept songs.

but yeah, definitely not the mindbending classic/Weezy corrective Nastans want. people’re gonna have to fess up that “C3’s” easily the best rap album of the year so far eventually. i will say i like the three songs i mentioned on this album more than that crappy Bun B album or Wale, though.

[…] Nico is wrapping up our Feed the Beast promotion strong–to make up for missed time, Nico dropped 2 more tracks this week for Feed the Beast Week 9.  This time, he bodies Ashanti’s “Only You.”  After we recorded this song, I wondered why the hell Ashanti gets better beats per release than most rappers.  Asides from that bullshit “One More Chance” song, her beats are usually pretty ill, even for a woman with sideburns (to paraphrase Lloyd Banks).  If Nas had Ashanti’s beats, he’d be Steve McQueen and people wouldn’t be ready to plant a pipebomb under Jeff’s car. […]

“definitely not the mindbending classic/Weezy corrective Nastans want. people’re gonna have to fess up that “C3’s” easily the best rap album of the year so far eventually.”

Ummm…yeah…okay.

I’ll fess up that C3 is the year’s best hip hop record after you fess up that George Bush should win the Nobel Peace Prize.

…you first.

ummmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm…um.

first guy: ha ha?

Doc: i’ll get back to you after i hear that, but forgive me for being a little skeptical. i mean you crazy contrarian bloggers tried to convince me that the Wale tape was the Greatest Mixtape Ever Made…BY HUMANS too, and that didn’t exactly turn out well.

still, i have liked every song Mike’s done with ‘Kast, so seeing if he could hold down a whole album’d be interesting.

Of course this is a horrible album. I would say, though, that, while I’m a right-wingnut myself, I can’t agree that Obama’s made old-guard radicalism obsolete. There’s still a place for a radical Left in American politics - I just don’t think that Nas is anywhere near being a decent spokesman for it. As for Hip-Hop Is Dead, I think it’s pretty underrated, at least among critics. Granted, no progressive ideas, but it’s not as if it’s a tired exercise in retro true-schoolism, like, say, The Minstrel Show, or Street’s Disciple. It’s as close to a successful marriage of Nas and a more contemporary sound as we’ll ever get, and with the exception of one or two songs it’s never out-and-out bad, like this album is on nearly every track. Was the concept an annoying publicity stunt that didn’t quite gel, yes, but he does actually bring some genuine insight to bear on the subject, whereas with politics he’s just hopelessly lost. If you insist on holding it to the standard that the title sets, I guess you have to call it a failure, but if you just take it for what it is, 16 (mostly) very solid songs, it’s pretty good.

This album is overhyped…mainly because it’s so “controversial.” I was disapptd at the quality — songs/choruses are pretty lame overall…there are about 3 good songs…black president has a stupid chorus, sounds like an Obama campaign song…and the glorifying Farrakhan is over the top…Nas comes across as “preachy,” forcing his views on the listener rather than, as was stated in the review, giving us his observations. Jay Z’s American Gangster had way better beats…

I agree to an extent that NaS’s strength is more as an observateur and not as a teacher in the KRS ONE sense of edutainment. But to an extent from ILLMATIC to UNTITLED Nas has always been a teacher of sorts.
All the way back to Illmatic there always was the ‘teacher/prophet in the making dynamic to NaS’s music. It’s sort of disheartening to hear a review that doesn’t commend an artist of Nas’s stature for taking the ultimate risk in this now apolitical, amoral decadent Hip Hop and entertainment culture by releasing an album that could put his career in harms way with his LABel MASTERS. This album to me represents the burgeoning of a genius mind who wants to channel genius storytelling into political commentary doused with lyricism. This is more a movement in the making than an LP it goes wayy deeper than rap music. It’s admirable and a BOB MARLEY, BOB DYLANESQUE undertaking, and this growth period will take time, and NaS has put himself in the position as Hip Hop’s gatekeeper, its arrogant but necessary in a culture and Media that dubs LIL WAYNE the “Greatest Rapper Alive”. Desperate times call for desperate measures. Thank the stars for Nasir Bin Olu Dara Jones.

OH and further more to put the Black Panther Party and this eight year administration in the same sentence lends to your ignorance as to exactly what the BP were really about. Don’t look at the whitewashed news clippings and step out of the whitebread white led paranoia that led to the BP’s demise and you might have a clue as to their intentions. If you want the true history and not HIS-Story on the Panthers I can point you in the right direction. Your review was appreciated J.W. whether you agree with NAS or not, at least you listened to it. Oh and on the song UNTITLED NAS didn’t say that he was the King of Jewels and Bentleys what he said was that’s what the establishment will try to paint him as and use some of his lines against him to discredit his message… (LISTEN CLOSE HOMIE)

Peace, Love, and Nappiness.
General JuN