Is it fair to say that Nas is a better writer than Jay-z but Jay-z is a better rapper than Nas?

BlueHeffner

BlueHeffner

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spliz said:
"Time is money when it comes to mine...."

"Imagine smoking weed on the streets...."

"That buck that bought a bottle..."

"I never sleep, cause sleep is the..."

"I'm out for presidents to..."



"From the womb to the tomb I presume the unpredictable, gun sulute...."


"Thru the lights cameras and action...."


"Freedom or jail clips inserted..."

"I got no game it's just some bytches..."


"Life's a bytch but God forbid.."
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Hov has way more of these, I promise you
 
Playaz Eyez

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Iverson_64 said:
Honestly, Jay just has better beat selection and more of an appetite for commercial/broad appeal.

Nas, by contrast, uses above average beat selection that's more hip hop oriented and has always limited the amount of commercial sounding songs he drops. Even comparing Illmatic to RD, RD has features of MJB and Foxy Brown while Illmatic is pure boom bap.

And even other Nas albums that have the occasional radio hit are mostly full of lyrical songs not made for the radio besides the single.

Nas, imho, is the better writer AND rapper. I always preferred Nas's mic presence and voice over Jay's. Jay has a nice voice too but sometimes it comes off too whiny and awkward to me at times. I can't explain it. And, lyrically, Nas is sicker than Jay when it comes to storytelling, rhyme schemes, metaphors, song topics, etc.

That said, I think Jay has slicker wordplay but some of that wordplay is forced af like Lil Wayne's. I remember brehs gassing up Jay's verse on "What's Free" on that Meek Mill album saying that Jay had the verse of the year and half of the bars on that track were forced af like the "Sign I failed" line that was supposed to be a play on Seinfeld or the jive turkey line. Not to mention that a good portion of the shyt didn't even rhyme and he started doing that weird Spoken word type flow. I've never been more disappointed at a so-called "top tier" Jay verse than that song.

I felt a very similar way about his "Neck & Wrist" verse which was also gassed up online but I wasn't impressed with the wordplay or even flow on that joint. Jay's flow was still on that off beat Spoken word wave while using some forced bars like the Faizon Love sub in the beginning.

But this is something I noticed with Jay and Nas in general. People hold Nas to a higher standard in terms of lyricism, flow, or even catalog. Jay, on the other hand, is much more marketable so, if he does the absolute bare minimum in terms of lyrics, flow, and subject matter, he'll get more props and praise for it because it came out of Jay Z's lips.

Overall, though, both are elite and top 10 DOA and that's all that matters. They have their strengths and weaknesses.
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This is especially true for present day Jay-Z. I’ll say everything from Kingdom Come to now outside of American Gangster
 
B

Bugzbunny129

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Jay is great at making commercially successful, simple hip hop for the masses. Nas has a “prophet of hip hop” vibe that caters strictly to nyc emcee types.

As far as writing itself. Jays is very simple. Jay stans love to overrate him (as nas stans do) in that regard; but imo jay is more flow/beats> lyrics type. He was a once upon a time, a mc like nas; but he “dumbed down the lyrics to douboe my dollars” Nothing wrong with that at all so not a diss. His punchline game is prolly higher than nas, but thats not the be all end all of writing.

But nas takes a totally diffetent approach to his music than jay. Nas storys, vocab, deep thoughts, song structures, overall ideas are on another level to jay, while he struggles to pick beats that are conpatible with the general hip hop fanbase; as well as his hooks/hit making ability.


So i understand the OP and probably agree.

Songs like take it in blood, youre the man, one mic, one love , etc are way outta jays purview. But then again, nas wouldnt do the jay hits right either so they both have ups and downs as mc’s.
 
GreenGhxst

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Bugzbunny129 said:
Jay is great at making commercially successful, simple hip hop for the masses. Nas has a “prophet of hip hop” vibe that caters strictly to nyc emcee types.

As far as writing itself. Jays is very simple. Jay stans love to overrate him (as nas stans do) in that regard; but imo jay is more flow/beats> lyrics type. He was a once upon a time, a mc like nas; but he “dumbed down the lyrics to douboe my dollars” Nothing wrong with that at all so not a diss. His punchline game is prolly higher than nas, but thats not the be all end all of writing.

But nas takes a totally diffetent approach to his music than jay. Nas storys, vocab, deep thoughts, song structures, overall ideas are on another level to jay, while he struggles to pick beats that are conpatible with the general hip hop fanbase; as well as his hooks/hit making ability.


So i understand the OP and probably agree.

Songs like take it in blood, youre the man, one mic, one love , etc are way outta jays purview. But then again, nas wouldnt do the jay hits right either so they both have ups and downs as mc’s.
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Extra phonetics does not make a verse better

If anything it can clutter your message

Dumbing down lyrics isn't dumbing down lyrics

It's increasing the relatability
 
Piff Perkins

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Mag Wheel said:
Interesting. I’ll say this: Nas will push the envelope more on a concept compared to Jay Z. Nas did a song about being a werewolf. Jay Z would never do some some shyt like that.
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Not gonna lie I think the concept thing can be a detriment. It’s like a movie, you only get away with a twist ending a couple times before audiences are trained to reject your shyt or think it’s lame. One Love and I Gave You Power are classics that reverberate to this day but most of the others are kind of lame. There are a couple on Untitled, including one about fried chicken and another about a roach. Nah. Each one is less poetic than the last and then you get to that werewolf one which is terrible.

To his credit though, Nas is gonna try shyt and take risks because he’s an artist to the core. Sometimes you’re gonna get killed for it, sometimes you’re gonna hit. But the effort is what matters and I think that separates the greats from others. It’s why Prince has mixed or disappointing albums that are better than the entire catalog of a variety of big 80s stars.
 
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