Nas Is Already ‘Halfway Through’ His Next Album With Hit-Boy

[KnickstapeCity]

I never actually looked into the Thun sample, but listening to it now I don't know if that's what the problem is.

First off, of course Hitboy got the sample from some royalty free music thing called "Free Music Egypt."

It doesn't seem like he did too much time stretching, because if you play the video at 1.25x speed it's pretty similar to Thun already. He probably tried to filter out the little bright sounds speckled throughout and ended up shaving off the top end. He probably poured all the reverb on to it trying to hide how janky it sounded afterwards.

Death Row East doesn't seem like it was super pitch shifted/time stretched either. I think he's just going overboard using a bit crusher, or something like RC-20, to add a "vintage" texture to the samples. I don't really have a problem with that, but it does stick out a lot when he blends clean and sharp synths and/or tinny drums with the stomped on middy samples.

I filter, bit crush, time stretch and pitch shift the shyt out of samples and I can usually clean it up better than he did, and when I can't I lean into the texture and build around it. I'll put a bit crusher on my master track just to get everything to meld better sometimes. It's not something that makes or breaks a beat IMO. Pete Rock stomps the shyt out of his samples and it's part of his signature sound. I think it's just how he decided to use it. I think it's fair to say the sound texture and coloring on his production is just not great,

I agree, like I said I love the song, but it's Nas and the violin sample doing most of the heavy lifting. If a better producer remade the beat it would be 10x better than what it is.

Fam, Free Music is the name of the record company. This is the same artist that Timbo sampled for that Fab record "Make Me Better" with Ne-Yo.

 

[ItWasWritten]

For those that don’t know

There is this big debate about the newer MPCs vs The older ones

People are complaining that the newer ones lost the signature sound and it doesn’t sound the same …

I know Hitboy uses this…. Is this the cause for that muted sound ?

 

[Supa]

For those that don’t know

There is this big debate about the newer MPCs vs The older ones

People are complaining that the newer ones lost the signature sound and it doesn’t sound the same …

I know Hitboy uses this…. Is this the cause for that muted sound ?

Nah, that's not the cause because other producers use the new MPC's and don't have that problem and Hit Boy doesn't use a vintage sounds anyways. His issue is more about sound selection and mixing.

 

[OGBobbyJohnson]

i’ve seen some wild takes but ALC not being a GOAT & being overrated is up there

I have no problem with Hit’s production & if Nas in a zone working with him than so be it but we not bout to act like AL not a cold producer..stop the bullshyt

 

[Ziggiy]

My issue with fans/stans is when you say you'd be fine with King's Disease 10...why? Like, why would you want an artist to be comfortable or working the same way over and over. Surely most artists would say feeling uncomfortable or challenged is the key to unlocking creativity.

Because Nas HIMSELF has said he works off inspiration. If Hit Boy INSPIRES Nas 5, 10, 20 albums in then THATS what i wanna hear. Nas has always talked about challenges and going through periods where he feels bored. Half the reason he moved from Columbia to Def Jam is because he said he was bored and WANTED a new challenge. If Hit Boy’s beats constantly challenge and inspire Nas then THATS what he needs to keep creating.

Being a fan means your with the artists throughout they’re artistic journey. If you ever wanna hop OFF that journey then more power to you, but Nas has said time and time and TIME again that he’s in a creative space right now that he’s been wanting to be in for YEARS, and Hit Boy is a major part of that. And it doesn’t just show in the music. He did an entire Master Class breaking down how he writes and composes a song. He did his own podcast. He’s been more active than at any point since 2006. These are all things that fans have been damn near begging for for YEARS.

I’m just not seeing the point in scrunching your face at the thought of more Nas and Hit Boy projects for the foreseeable future. If the music sucked then sure, time for something new. But the music doesn’t suck. He’s literally JUST within the last 6 months been getting praise from the media for the work he and Hit have been doing. Elliot Wilson, the head Hovenger, is quoting lyrics on Twitter, calling Nas & Hit the best Duo in rap, and PUBLICLY said to Nas face that he was wrong about his initial review of IWW. Rolling Stone went from shytting on him three years ago to calling him the GOAT. Fans are happy. Critics are happy. The follow through is unprecedented.


And we REALLY having a conversation about “Why would you be fine with Nas continuing to work with Hit Boy?”

nikka WHY WOULDN’T I!?!? You can’t give me any verifiable reason why the Nas/Hit Boy train should be derailed. It would be like asking why would fans want Spike Lee to continue working with Denzel Washington? Why would fans want Christopher Nolan to
Keep working with Cillian Murphy? Is anyone asking why Drake is still working with 40? They have SEVENTY THREE songs together over the course of 7 studio albums. I haven’t heard not one so called Aubrey fan say Drake needs to move away from 40.

Like i’m truly at a loss of what we’re supposed to be complaining about as fans. Its not even like Nas is shunning other producers during this run. You want Premo? There goes Break Beats. You want Statik Selectah?




You want Metro Boomin?



You want Swizz?





You want Nas and Jay-Z?



You want The Coli’s new MVP ALCHEMIST???




All of these have been signed, sealed, and delivered during the Hit Boy era. Nas has kept his productivity up with other producers WHILE working alongside Hit Boy so all of those “We want something new for no other reason than its something new” people have gotten it every year.

 

[THE 101]

I get the complaints about the lack of texture or warmth in his production but my issue moreso that sometimes he sounds more like a beatmaker than a producer, and you can also tell some things are being rushed. Not just the pitching that was mentioned but the vocal punches are extremely obvious and jarring on some tracks, especially Magic 2. Not to bring up Premo but...when he talked about working on that last track they did for the EP, Break Beats, he said it took some time to get Nas to redo some vocals. It was mentioned simply in discussing the creation of the track, not to shyt on Nas (iirc it was a scheduling thing so he had to wait for Nas to get back to the studio to complete the track). But I guarantee you whatever vocal performance Premo wanted him to redo would have been kept by Hit Boy regardless of whether the tone matched the previous punch.

And perhaps that's part of the allure of working with him, and the chemistry. Not being told to re-do a bunch of stuff and being able to record multiple songs a day, as Nas has mentioned before, sounds like a good deal if you just want to knock projects out. My issue with fans/stans is when you say you'd be fine with King's Disease 10...why? Like, why would you want an artist to be comfortable or working the same way over and over. Surely most artists would say feeling uncomfortable or challenged is the key to unlocking creativity. And while I'm sure someone is gonna say "you don't know if Hit Boy has made Nas re-do vocals"...I'm sure he has, fine. But when you can literally hear lines stitched together with different tones/takes that's...not good. It gives parts of the albums a mixtape quality. That's a mixing issue which goes to the engineering but end of the day, the producer is in charge.

This too. Even Guru made records without Premier between the Gang Starr albums.

 

[Ziggiy]

This too. Even Guru made records without Premier between the Gang Starr albums.

So has Nas
































Thats an album’s worth of songs made within the last 3 years that have NO Hit Boy production whatsoever. Go run them streams up

 

[THE 101]

So has Nas
































Thats an album’s worth of songs made within the last 3 years that have NO Hit Boy production whatsoever. Go run them streams up

We're talking guest appearences and one off songs now?

You're dedicated, i'll give you that.

 

[FunkDoc1112]

So has Nas
































Thats an album’s worth of songs made within the last 3 years that have NO Hit Boy production whatsoever. Go run them streams up

We're talking about whole albums and you're here posting features

 

[JustCKing]

Makes sense since they're commercial producers. If the line up was Muggs, Conductor, Camo Monk, and Daringer everyone would assume he wants the Griselda sound right?

You're mistake is saying that everyone would say the music is wack. Would I be excited at the lineup, no but I'd still listen and judge it based on what I'm hearing because I've liked plenty of music from those producers even though that's not my go to style of music. Y'all think it's impossible to like Premier and Pharrell at the same time and that's bullshyt.

Why is it safe to assume that they would give Nas radio friendly music though? "Trust" isn't radio friendly and that's Boi-1da. The first time we got Nas on a Timbaland beat ("To My" featuring Skillz isn't commercial). An 11 second snippet of "Sinatra In The Sands" exists and it doesn't sound commercial at all and it features Justin Timberlake. Pharrell's "Vernon Family" isn't commercial.

It isn't impossible to loke both Premier and Pharrell at the same time, but there are a lot of people who look at Pharrell as trendy and Premier as timeless because the idea is that sense Pharrell has huge mainstream, it's more trendy and to nerf him the narrative is that the music didn't age well. I see this all the time.

 

[Supa]

Why is it safe to assume that they would give Nas radio friendly music though? "Trust" isn't radio friendly and that's Boi-1da. The first time we got Nas on a Timbaland beat ("To My" featuring Skillz isn't commercial). An 11 second snippet of "Sinatra In The Sands" exists and it doesn't sound commercial at all and it features Justin Timberlake. Pharrell's "Vernon Family" isn't commercial.

It isn't impossible to loke both Premier and Pharrell at the same time, but there are a lot of people who look at Pharrell as trendy and Premier as timeless because the idea is that sense Pharrell has huge mainstream, it's more trendy and to nerf him the narrative is that the music didn't age well. I see this all the time.

These are straw man arguments at this point

 

[LOST IN THE SAUCE]

Fam, Free Music is the name of the record company. This is the same artist that Timbo sampled for that Fab record "Make Me Better" with Ne-Yo.

My bad.

I read the youtube bio then googled "free music egypt" and it was all "royalty free music" shyt. Free music is a really dumb name for a company trying to sell music

 

[ℒℴѵℯJay ELECTUA]

Destiny said to me expect the new Nas LP in Decemeber.

It#'s Coming.

 

[Big Boss]

Gibbs and Alchemist did 30,000 first week with Alfredo.

Nas and Hit Boy did 30,000 first week with KD3.

The sales argument is DOA. Just to drive the point home further:

KD2 56,000
Magic 22,000
KD3 30,000

The first week sales are trending down with big drop offs. If sales are a determining factor for Nas sticking with Hit Boy don't the numbers say otherwise? I guess it's the lack of promo and videos right? If that's the case then why did Gibbs' major label album sell 21,000 first week, 9k less than the album he did with Alchemist which was released independently?

Hit Boy is not helping Nas move units and by the numbers it looks like people are checking out. From a pure numbers perspective a change might be needed to stimulate growth.

If the counter is "Nas is 50, he's not going to sell records" then sales shouldn't have been brought up in the first place.

 

[King Ming]

So has Nas
































Thats an album’s worth of songs made within the last 3 years that have NO Hit Boy production whatsoever. Go run them streams up

That R-Mean joing is fire!