Just finished my first listen. I'm gonna give this a 7.5/10. It started off uneven and I was worried but the middle end are really good.
I'm happy Nas is confident and taking chances especially with his hooks. And this Hit Boy team up is really a nice like career rejuvination type thing for him. It's working from a legacy/marketing perspective.
But personally this isn't my favorite type of production for Nas. It's cool, I don't hate it but overall I like a grittier sound. That's what's holding my rating back. And some of the features I did not like. EPMD was too long. I'm just not a big Eminem fan, and Erick Sermon sounded crazy WTF?! And YKTV was a step too far for me. Wack. Lauryn Hill's feature was excellent, might be my favorite moment of the album on first listen. I liked the joints when it was just Nas the most and the beats were all decent to good. Store Run, My Bible and Nobody are the stand out joints to me.