*Is perplexed*

between nas making me go get fried chicken and kelis making me go get a mcflurry*, that jones couple is gonna make me a fat-ass.

*=or milkshake.

Doesn’t that more fairly describe Pete Rock? Premo did a ton of work with Nas, Big, KRS, and Jay - Pete Rock did, what, one song with them combined? Two if you count the Juicy remix. Guru > CL Smooth, to my ears… MOP and Jeru are talented rappers… then you’ve got his work with OC, Mos Def, late Rakim, Jada, the Lox, Too Short, Devin, AZ - and of course, he’s done his fair share of beats for these shitty unkut.com types, but I think the majority of his peak work was done with great rappers.

As for the relative merits of Nas’s albums, give me The Lost Tapes over any post-It Was Written release. Yes, it’s throwaways from I Am, but mysteriously enough, the throwaways in this case were way better than almost everything on the album they got cut from. It’s not perfect - the last verse of Doo Rags is some really treacly shit, Black Zombie’s confused, My Way’s another one of his disappointing balling songs that doesn’t come off, he shouldn’t have sang the hook on Poppa Was a Playa, and in general the beats are competent but far from stunning - but there’s a lot of really amazing stuff on there.

So maybe Nas does deserve credit for trying but this is a very antagonistic and alienating record, one with a muddled politique. I don’t really want to continue having this argument. It’s over. But ultimately, he tried to fight fire with fire and you know how that goes. Maybe I should learn the same lesson but when you get paid money to write a review, you should be expected to be honest, right?

As for the “worried about losing money” thing, well that was one of my biggest problems with Untitled. It has several songs very blatantly groping for radio play that didn’t really fit and showed that despite his obvious social conscience, he’s just as, if not more concerned with maintaining his slippery fanbase (i.e. 200,000 less people bought this album than the last one).

Look, as I’ve said before. I own every Nas album. I have been a Nas fan since Illmatic. I recognize that he’s a great rapper and respect what he’s trying to do but just because he does it does not mean I should automatically lavish him with praise.

Whether Nas fails to properly address the hot button issues facing the US or not, he probably should be given some credit for trying - especially when other big-name rappers are afraid to do so for fear of losing their popularity/money, or won’t since they don’t give a f**k about any of it.

I don’t know both Primo and Dre are way past their prime. Dre can’t be bothered with his own album and Primo hasn’t had an original idea in years.

I just had an interesting parrell between Nas and Primo, though. Primo is sort of the Nas’ of the producers’ world. He’s an exceptionally talented genius who instead of kicking brilliant lyrics over shitty beats, he picks shitty rappers to rap over his brilliant production. Maybe, Preme and Nas need each other.

No more Chris Webber beats!

One.

i wouldn’t say that the lost tapes is better than nas’ def jam output, though; to me, it has the same number of brilliant tracks that hip-hop is dead has (which i will agree with zilla and say there’s about five). but, i’ve said it before, the n-word tape is nas’ best release in years, and genuinely his best complete work since it was written.

BUT BUT BUT if he does actually follow through on that premo/dre use your illusion-esque thing, we may find the classic nas album(s) we’ve been waiting for.

btw, Camilo Smith was laid off in the latest purge.

As much as I am a Nas fan, him saying “fuck the Times” really pisses me off.

Where should we get our news from? Al Jazeera?