Nas had such a mediocre career.
 

I listened to Nas' full discography the past week. Every album he released after Illmatic was more or less the same: a few great tracks to remind you of what he can do, a few God-awful singles to remind you that he's never going to make it superstar-level big, a few boring-ass songs where he tries to preach at you and a whole bunch of songs where the beats just sucked because he gave his career over to Trackmasterz and Salaam Remi.

There's so much inexplicable shit. Why did The Lost Tapes (recorded almost entirely in 1998 and 1999) have more good songs than I Am ... and Nastradamus (his albums from that era) combined? Why does he still keep trying to make radio-friendly songs with R&B hooks? How did he think following trash single "Got Ur Self A Gun" with "Made You Look" was good when they're practically the same?

If you put Nas' 20 best songs since Illmatic on an album, pretty much nobody could match it. But there's so much garbage in between. I love Mobb Deep, but there's no reason Prodigy should have had a so much more relevant career.

Illmatic is bonkers aside from that tho Nas mad boring to me

stillmatic is probably his best album imo

I personally think illmatic is a little better but the fact @Certain seems to have overlooked stillmatic completely makes me want to rip his throat out.

<3

Lol'd at Prodigy had a more relevant career than Nas

Stillmatic is very unbalanced.

Great songs: “Stillmatic (The Intro),” “Ether,” “Rewind,” “One Mic” and “2nd Childhood.”

Good-enough songs: “You’re da Man,” “The Flyest” (which might be the worst AZ/Nas song ever) and “What Goes Around.”

Shitty songs: “Got Ur Self A…,” “Smokin’,” “Destroy & Rebuild,” “Braveheart Party,” “Rule” and “My Country.”

I have no idea how you could think any song on Illmatic is worse than any of the songs on that last list.

you're da man, the flyest, and what goes around are all great songs i think

got urself a gun is good enough. likewise with destroy and rebuild, even though it's noticeably worse than the former.

smokin, rule, braveheart party, and my country are all shit songs.

there's also 4 more songs on stillmatic than illmatic, so if we factor out these 4 shitty songs, they're more or less equal.

This thread is now a cry for help.

illmatic, stillmatic, and lost tapes.

fuck everything else.

illmatic alone puts nas in a special place though. as soon as i hear the beginning of ny state of mind that entire album plays in my head. and lord did it encompass the feeling of being in urban ny/nj

It's all colored by how great illmatic is. Where do you go from there? Can't top that shit bruh. Lost Tapes, stillmatic, God's Son are dope imo.

Plus he pays a ridiculous amount of child support to Kelis so it's not all bad for Nasir.

yeah god's son wasn't bad either just too much braveheart nonsense

heaven is a great track off of there.

Agree with Certain

Legit thread

Lol thread

"My Country" is just so fucking bad. Maybe the worst hook Nas has ever used, which is saying something. I have very little tolerance for Nas trying to preach or drop political or historic knowledge. He's just wrong so often. ("I Can" was a really, really obnoxious example of that.)

Nas is one of my favorite rappers ever but makes terrible, terrible choices for producers (pretty much every track he's ever recorded with DJ Premier or Large Professor is fire, yet he keeps going back to Salaam Remi) and collaborators (Bravehearts make Outlawz look good by comparison), and he can't make a radio/club song but keeps trying.

WHEN GOLD WAS CONVERTED TO MONEY IT ALL CHANGED

He has historical understanding on the level of an average sixth grader. From "What Goes Around":

YEAH MOTHERFUCKER I LEARNED THAT IN FOURTH GRADE AFTER MAKING HAND TURKEYS.

as far as Remi goes (and bravehearts for that matter), i always assumed they had a close friendship that superseded Nas's better musical judgement.

And that sucks for fans.

Just cuz a nigga wear a kufi it don't mean that he bright

Yaheardme.

i thought this was common knowledge tho?

i guess since we're not arguing his career against jay z's tho you can get people to agree that he's done relatively nothing since illmatic as far as an album goes. but peoples hatred of jay z somehow gets them to argue for terrible albums in nas' favor

as a dude who gets stoned and makes mediocre beats if i was able to get anybody to rhyme on my shit nas is near the very top of that list.

he's a G. but word he's got the curse of making meh songs

God's Son went the fuck off

Yeah, I've just re-listened to the whole catalog in a week, and that really brought home the truth.

If Nas had ever at any point in his career (even now) made an entire album where DJ Premier, Large Professor, Pete Rock and Alchemist handled all the production, it'd be a hands-down classic. (And no, that's not true for any rapper.)

i agree. premiers always talking about doing an album with him but its never gonna happen. but im pretty sure he's said nas is down they just need shit to line up

so basically if premier can't clear his schedule of making shitty beats for people like termanology to ruin, and nas can't decide to get in and make actual music it will never happen

I can see it now.

Executive producer Salaam Remi in the post-production process: "Hey, Nas, this beat is too simple. Let's add some synth to it."

How does salaam remi manage to get so much done w/ nas?

His tracks are for the most part terrible

He prolly was better w/ Amy wine house

but damn near every nas track H3 produced is lacking

Signed in to defend Got yourself a gun


Nas + Sopranos = greatness

wow

Nas has a long list of classics

You gotta have a 3 digit IQ to appreciate his music though... so not surprised

A classic is not defined by a single person's opinion. It is a widely agreed-upon status. By any definition, Nas has one classic: Illmatic. It Was Written, Stillmatic, The Lost Tapes, God's Son and even Life Is Good all have groundswell support but not the developed consensus required for classic status. Classics aren't one-third shit songs.

Classic songs. A long list of classic songs.

fuck cares about albums?
The artists don't choose 100% of the songs on their shit, cmon man...

thanks for the definitions though Webster

His career isn't indicative of his impact.

Stylistically, Nas' influence is well understood.

He's a straight Rapper man Rapper bro. Nas isn't Kendrick, which you may know already. He got caught up in being a rap image though. I didn't intend for any of that to rhyme. I'm fucked up.

Point is, Nas done did what he did and your mediocre branding, @Certain, is only relative to his celebrity. Or maybe you just wonder why he can't make good music anymore. It's the same reason we can't write quite like we used to. Fuck I'm deep; moms inheritance.

Where do you derive your consensus from homie? We live on a computer. Hip hop fans my age tend to get irritated hearing illmatic play. Period. But now I'm just generalizing. Fuck. What is a classic except something that people from a given generation can all nod their heads at and feel like they're in on? Unless you just like the noise. Then, you know... you probably just listen.

Gods Son is a dope album I think. Can't recall a single weak track off it, though it's been a while since I gave it a spin.

Lol'd at the Outlawz comment, def truth in that.

Lmfao stfu

I don't listen to Nas except that tape I put in the OM Mag

I Can and that one with his crew were shit but yeah other than that it's a dope album.

I think this argument is a bit specious, really. In terms of record sales and influence he's really had one of the best careers out of anyone in his era. He didn't release another classic, no, but not many artists have more than one. So he has a classic album, good sales, mega-influence, and a string of good-to-maybe-great albums. I understand that he has a mediocre career if you think of it terms of potential from the onset, but most commercially viable rappers would trade their careers for his in an instant, I think. So I don't know. His work is underwhelming at times, but he's dope.

That's all I'm trying to say. He's like a guy with 3-point range who can't hit free throws.

last two comments on-point.

I like Revolutionary Warfare, btw. solid beat, and the guest spots were serviceable. had the awesomely bad head-scratcher lyric: "I'm like a modern-day Hitler, black gorilla, crip and blood in one nigga."

also, Nas doesn't just have a classic. He has THE classic, which is different.

but he has produced a peculiar amount of mediocre and sub-par tracks.