Nas - King's Disease II (Discussion Thread)

[TheAnointedOne]

Eminem's technical lyrical ability is without doubt. But.....man. He just doesn't fit in that song. Like you listen to the song and everything is great....but then he jumps in. It just.....doesn't fit. It's like a squared peg round hole situation. It's like putting Limp Bizkit on a Beyonce album. Nas and EMPD's verses have meaning and coherence. Then he jumps on and the shyt gets spaghettified and discombobulated. Feels like Eminem's forced inclusion was merely for fan service like how in an anime a female character would be partially nude to excite the mostly virgin audience.

 

[Soymuscle Mike]

not only the so called “stans” but also other professional publications is indicative of an unfair bias against an artist which SHOULD be called out, scorned, and highlighted with all due prejudice

This is why Nas said "Go to every station murder the DJ" on HIP-HOP IS DEAD.

Pitchfork, and lot of these other media organisations, likes to pretend it's woke as fukk but it has no problem allowing itself to be considered a leading authority on Hip-Hop music, if people don't see the irony (and the problem) with this then

Like I said a few pages back, these people get 0 clicks from me but I'll always call them out. And hell yeah I'll be a bit more vocal when it's Nas because THEY become a bit more vocal when it comes to Nas and it's been like that since '96.

 

[JustCKing]

While I agree with your post the ironic thing is that Toure LOVES Nas and has defended both Nas and his beat selection several times.


Also its not worth it to be explaining to ANYONE why this guy’s review was flagrant as all hell and deserved EXACTLY the backlash it got. Anyone pretending they don’t understand under the too cool for school “bu bu but REVIEWS DON’T MATTER” bullshyt is simply lying or an idiot and not worth engaging with. A child could understand why quality Hip Hop music such as KD2 should be properly appreciated and the fact that there is such a DRAMATIC difference of opinion between, not only the so called “stans” but also other professional publications is indicative of an unfair bias against an artist which SHOULD be called out, scorned, and highlighted with all due prejudice

Yeah, but it got backlash for the WRONG reasons. People are going in on how he looks and what not that aren't even related to the review. This isn't even about Hip Hop or even music at this point. How can we expect this dude to appreciate something he doesn't understand? He was given a Nas album to review and that's what he did. And again, reviews do not matter in 2021. More importantly, they don't matter to people who already heard the album. We are not the audience that these people write for. Their audience is people who haven't heard the music that they are reviewing.

If people started flagging every review based off the content, and these publications started bending to the will of the fan, we would never have negative reviews, which removes the honesty. Critics are supposed to present us with the good, the bad, and the ugly.

Last, if we were to go back and look at the criticisms of even the most positive reviews of what are now classics, there's much that would raise a red flag. For example, The Source originally gave Doggystyle 4 mics. Positive review, but their negative takeaways were nitpicky i.e. saying the album had too many features and we don't hear Snoop until like the third track. Did their critique of Doggystyle change the overall perception of that album or Snoop? Do people really dismiss Doggystyle as a classic because it has too many features?

 

[prophecypro]

Nas "King's Disease II" Review

 

[Ball]

Gotta give props to em

he’s got the link to KD2 on his Instagram bio still

 

[Izanami]

Another thing, Timbo is listed as one of the producers on the album but You Won't See Me Tonight isn't on that double disc tracklisting.

The guy @Waterproof just spewing ignorant stupidity throughout this thread,

 

[Ziggiy]

Yeah, but it got backlash for the WRONG reasons. People are going in on how he looks and what not that aren't even related to the review. This isn't even about Hip Hop or even music at this point. How can we expect this dude to appreciate something he doesn't understand? He was given a Nas album to review and that's what he did. And again, reviews do not matter in 2021. More importantly, they don't matter to people who already heard the album. We are not the audience that these people write for. Their audience is people who haven't heard the music that they are reviewing.

If people started flagging every review based off the content, and these publications started bending to the will of the fan, we would never have negative reviews, which removes the honesty. Critics are supposed to present us with the good, the bad, and the ugly.

Last, if we were to go back and look at the criticisms of even the most positive reviews of what are now classics, there's much that would raise a red flag. For example, The Source originally gave Doggystyle 4 mics. Positive review, but their negative takeaways were nitpicky i.e. saying the album had too many features and we don't hear Snoop until like the third track. Did their critique of Doggystyle change the overall perception of that album or Snoop? Do people really dismiss Doggystyle as a classic because it has too many features?

Thats the cost of doing business in today’s media world. There are consequences for what you put your name on and ole boy is facing those consequences now. No different than the backlash Da Baby, Kevin Hart, or any other public figure faces when they come out their neck speaking flagrant. And when it comes to the CONSTRUCTIVE criticism of his bullshyt review, other sites and publications have refrained from personal attacks. The guys linked two pages ago didn’t attack him personally, they provided ample reasons why his review was flagrant.


He accepted a job, and there are expectations that come with that job. Simple as that

 

[Budda]

Yeah, but it got backlash for the WRONG reasons. People are going in on how he looks and what not that aren't even related to the review. This isn't even about Hip Hop or even music at this point. How can we expect this dude to appreciate something he doesn't understand? He was given a Nas album to review and that's what he did. And again, reviews do not matter in 2021. More importantly, they don't matter to people who already heard the album. We are not the audience that these people write for. Their audience is people who haven't heard the music that they are reviewing.

If people started flagging every review based off the content, and these publications started bending to the will of the fan, we would never have negative reviews, which removes the honesty. Critics are supposed to present us with the good, the bad, and the ugly.

Last, if we were to go back and look at the criticisms of even the most positive reviews of what are now classics, there's much that would raise a red flag. For example, The Source originally gave Doggystyle 4 mics. Positive review, but their negative takeaways were nitpicky i.e. saying the album had too many features and we don't hear Snoop until like the third track. Did their critique of Doggystyle change the overall perception of that album or Snoop? Do people really dismiss Doggystyle as a classic because it has too many features?

The point is if you don’t understand something as you say, then don’t review it everything else you said is not relevant I’m not here writing about art rock cause I don’t listen or have a great understanding of Yh w genre. The backlash comes with he hubris, and he deserves it all.

What type of world do you live in where you can just critique stuff and not even expect a modicum of rebuttals..

 

[InstantKlassik]

This arguing over reviews have ruined this thread over the past 3 days. SHUT THE fukk UP. Enjoy the art.

 

[Rosecrans]

Death Row East


Just

 

[Ziggiy]

Death Row East


Just

Such a classic joint. A crowning jewel of Hit Boy’s production work

 

[IllmaticDelta]

I read the review and don't care one bit. Like most album reviews it reads like a skim through write up to meet a deadline. The quality of the music and the consensus opinion matters more than an online publication with zero credibility. Having the greatest metacritic score means nothing. That's an arbitrary number.



The issue was selecting subpar to wack beats. It wasn't just because they weren't boom bap.

BET 2010:



2010 was way before Vlad.

I stated that it was a minor issue/talking point prior to Vlad, which is why you could only find 2 quotes to back up the claim prior to Vlad; when VLad came along, this view started trending because he brought up to everyone he interviewed on his channel

 

[JustCKing]

The point is if you don’t understand something as you say, then don’t review it everything else you said is not relevant I’m not here writing about art rock cause I don’t listen or have a great understanding of Yh w genre. The backlash comes with he hubris, and he deserves it all.

What type of world do you live in where you can just critique stuff and not even expect a modicum of rebuttals..

What kind of world do we live in where a review deserves a rebuttal?

And yes people review things they have no understanding of all the time. Most people who write reviews have no musical knowledge or skill whatsoever. Many can't tell you the difference between a kick and a snare, bar counts, delivery and that's not even touching the lyrical aspects. So basically people catch feelings over something that we already do anyway: critique music. Every listener of music is a music critic to some degree. We all know what sounds good to us and know what sounds bad. Bias can taint our experience.

My point is where does this end? If we weren't willing to rake him over the coals for his other reviews, why now? Yeah, he dropped Nas's Metacritic score from a 96 to an 88. Do we cry and pout about it? Realistically, most knew that score wouldn't stick.

Nas is 30 years deep. He has critical acclaim, commercial success, etc. I doubt he's sobbing over a 6.1 review from Pitchfork especially when there's been an outpouring of praise for the same album from people he actually respects vs a 6.1 score from someone he's never even met.

I'm sitting here nearly convinced that King's Disease II is the best album I've heard since TPAB. I'm sure people disagree with that assessment, but it's MY assessment.

 

[JustCKing]

Thats the cost of doing business in today’s media world. There are consequences for what you put your name on and ole boy is facing those consequences now. No different than the backlash Da Baby, Kevin Hart, or any other public figure faces when they come out their neck speaking flagrant. And when it comes to the CONSTRUCTIVE criticism of his bullshyt review, other sites and publications have refrained from personal attacks. The guys linked two pages ago didn’t attack him personally, they provided ample reasons why his review was flagrant.


He accepted a job, and there are expectations that come with that job. Simple as that

This is far different from the backlash that Da Baby, Kevin Hart etc. have faced. All this dude did was tick off some of us who are fans of Nas's music. Review wasn't even offensive given that Pitchfork has done much worse i.e. that hack job of a review they gave Untitled.

And let's be honest, even glowing reviews for Nas are often littered with backhanded compliments. But because it is a glowing review, it never gets flagged.

 

[Budda]

What kind of world do we live in where a review deserves a rebuttal?

And yes people review things they have no understanding of all the time. Most people who write reviews have no musical knowledge or skill whatsoever. Many can't tell you the difference between a kick and a snare, bar counts, delivery and that's not even touching the lyrical aspects. So basically people catch feelings over something that we already do anyway: critique music. Every listener of music is a music critic to some degree. We all know what sounds good to us and know what sounds bad. Bias can taint our experience.

My point is where does this end? If we weren't willing to rake him over the coals for his other reviews, why now? Yeah, he dropped Nas's Metacritic score from a 96 to an 88. Do we cry and pout about it? Realistically, most knew that score wouldn't stick.

Nas is 30 years deep. He has critical acclaim, commercial success, etc. I doubt he's sobbing over a 6.1 review from Pitchfork especially when there's been an outpouring of praise for the same album from people he actually respects vs a 6.1 score from someone he's never even met.

I'm sitting here nearly convinced that King's Disease II is the best album I've heard since TPAB. I'm sure people disagree with that assessment, but it's MY assessment.

Bro you typing paragraphs for nothing, people are allowed to not agree and criticise the review the same way the critic has a wrote a public review about a public album.

And so what if people make it personal the whole reason the review has been met with such damnation is because the reviewer himself made it personal so it’s all fair in love and war.

If people’s backlash means pitchfork will recruit reviewers who are more connected with the culture then that’s for the better, even better not review certain albums at all.