Nas & DJ Premier - Define My Name (new single out now, album releasing later this year)

[THE 101]

Preme so washed

 

[JoelB]

What was Jay last verse?

Thanks for reminding me, did D'angelo ever release that record with out Jays Floetry verse

 

[Awesome Wells]

I get people want him to work with names vs who he has chemstry with at the time. And dudes like Dre and Premier are notourious for taking their time which cant always wait for (remember Nas is like he had to rush cause he was about to miss the dealine and he missed the deadline for HHID and I remember him saying "Yo he should really drop in 2007")

Al would be cool but Al got a lot on and I know he hates dealing with labels even Mass Appeal when it was Deacon so we'll see. They'll probably work on a project too eventually

But I will say in the last 20 years, his best work isnt coming from the big name guys at all, so at some people gotta accept the dope stuff may come from people they least expect for him

I don’t even think it's a thing with bigger names. But I spent 20+ years watching Preem give beats to dudes like Skyzoo and Royce that I would've loved to hear Nas on. Every project Alchemist drops, I'm thinking, "Damn, this is the kinda sh*t Nas should be getting." Since like '99, that's been a thing, the beats.

Nas is in my Top 5-6 MC's of all-time, but he pisses me off. I look at his catalogue, and 1/2 of it is suspect because of production. Nas ain't never had a problem with showing up, lyrically. But dude seriously does his own A&R work, so there's no one around telling him that maybe he should pick some other beats, lol. So after I Am, it became a thing where you couldn't let bro's music play without skipping because you knew he was gonna have some suspect beats on the projects.

Pete did a whole joint with Smoke DZA. Production was FIRE! He has the Common album coming up soon. Large has done a few projects since, all dope. Tip is doing the same. Those dudes from back in the day are still cooking up some sh*t! So when I hear their joints, I bug out on why Nas ain't getting back with them to do something for this era. Nas could easily reach out to them, but instead, he'll be like, "I got 5 new albums coming produced entirely by Mike & Keys". HAHA!! I don’t get it.

 

[Brandon M.]

nas and alchemist is what we need

 

[the cac mamba]

classic premo "too choppy" beat

still pretty dope

edit: not to critique his beatmaking, but if this flowed better without those gaps, i feel like it would have been crazy

 

[DrexlersFade]

Thanks for reminding me, did D'angelo ever release that record with out Jays Floetry verse

@Cladyclad nope

 

[KillKenny]

Premier album might still happen

 

[LOST IN THE SAUCE]

We don't know the behind the scenes shyt of everything but it was definitely beef with Pete Rock and shyt probably soured with Hav while Nas was beefing with P

It's a shame he didn't work with Premier more in the 00's, I agree on that one...

Also you're bugging on No ID, would easily take his LIG beats over those two Pete Rock Lost Tapes beats...The Art Of It would have been so much better if it hadn't been horribly mixed


Hall and Nash 2 or maybe that Earl Sweatshirt shyt I think, they were cool but the beats get kinda samey to me

Queensbridge Politics is one of my favorite beats from the last like 10-15 years.


Alc's work with Earl and Armand Hammer was not great tbh. Their style of abstract does not jive with me, so I'm not going to say anything in defense of that, but idk how you can listen to his work with Boldy and say it's samesy or mostly drumless.

H&N2 is years old.

I wouldn't go that far, but it's a good song. Guru was the main reason the song was good, similiar to this one with Nas. Compared to the other classics on M.O.T., a legit bonafide 5 Mic caliber album, it's definitely on the lower end.

I think it worked really well in the context of the full album, but if it was released as the first single I might feel a way about it. Maybe this one fits better within the album too.

From what Ive seen in recent interviews and spaces, a lot of Hit's stuff isnt sample based. Theres some obvious ones like Legit but hes even said he'll make a joint and have someone record vocals to loop and chop as a sample. so he doesnt have that many

Nah, he used a lot of samples. Not all the time of course, but they're there.

 

[Awesome Wells]

Hmmm I heard the opposite on Large Pro after Illmatic, Nas wanted him on IWW and Large Pro told him he needed to branch out from his mentor

And like I said with Pete it was beef

Nah, Stoute told Nas he didn't want any "dusty" beats on the album, and had Nas go with the producers he was managing...Trackmasters.

He had a vision for Nas that was what he called "the opposite" of Illmatic because it didn't sell. So rather than push back on that, Nas went with Stoute's advice and let him oversee all of the production on the album. Nas wanted Marley Marl and other Queens producers, Stoute said no.

 

[Arithmetic]

 

[THE 101]

I think Nas sounds pretty sharp....better than he did on most of them HitBoy shyts. Preme definitely a better producer in terms of getting good verses out of his artists but this beat is more Chop D.I.E.S.E.L. than vintage Premo.

 

[HNIC973]

Thanks for reminding me, did D'angelo ever release that record with out Jays Floetry verse

 

[DaveyDave]

classic premo "too choppy" beat

still pretty dope

edit: not to critique his beatmaking, but if this flowed better without those gaps, i feel like it would have been crazy

Almost every Premo beat I’ve heard in the last 10-20 years would sound 100x better if he put hi hats in there. Usually when he uses hi hats, they’re fire and without, they’re still dope but there’s just something missing I think that’s the glue he needs for those ones.
Having said that I’m still at work and haven’t listened to this one yet

 

[ThirdAct]

Queensbridge Politics is one of my favorite beats from the last like 10-15 years.

I like QB Politics a lot too but is it better than say Speechless or Legit or Michael & Quincy or Store Run? Once we get over the idea that Pete Rock is this vaulted name in hip-hop the answer is "Nope, not really"...and The Art Of It definitely isn't with that godawful mix

 

[Nero Christ]

shyt cold to me