Nas album release/discussion threads always deliver:
The “Escobar Season has returned”/“Nas is coming” anticipation which fills pages and pages as soon as something is announced and before we even hear one full track
The overreactions both ways when a snippet/first single drops
The theories about what the album is going to sound like based on the cover, title, and tracklisting whenever that’s released
The disappointment/uncertainty/intrigue about who is making beats or producing the album and who is not
The excitement/skepticism about features
The longing for projects that had been discussed or mentioned as a possibility before—album produced entirely by Premier, collab album with AZ
The calling the album classic or wack (but mostly classic) before and immediately after it’s been released
The “fukk Nas Coalition” who come in like villains talking about random dumb shyt tryna derail the thread—e.g he can’t pick beats, he ain’t gon sell, he ain’t as relevant today, he ain’t as good as blah blah blah
The Nas stans who throw on their capes prepared to defend Nas from any perceived or outright disrespect, slights, or criticism
The guaranteed comparisons of Nas to Jay-Z and rehashing of that beef and shyt that happened over twenty years ago
The inevitability of Jay-Z releasing something same day as Nas’s projects and that fueling conspiracies that the beef is still on
The stan wars
The reactions to each song
The quoting of lines/lyrics
The tweets from other rappers/celebrities and what they think about the project
The hailing it as classic or wack—no in between
The links to reviews and people liking or hating the review based on whether it conforms to what they think about the album—“fukk Pitchfork”...no, seriously, fukk Pitchfork...and Rolling Stones too
The questions of why Nas did this and why he didn’t do that and speculation of he’ll do next
The guesses of how much the record is going to sell and in the same breath saying it doesn’t matter how much it sells
The declarations that it should be nominated for and win awards followed by others who say “fukk a Grammy”
The ranking of Nas’s discography
Rinse, wash, repeat. Might be the same for other artists but it just feels different with Nas. Always an event.
. Easily a 4 mic album.
