Nas - King's Disease III (Discussion Thread)

[Slim Charles]

i think it's just too hard to compare these new albums with albums like IWW, Stillmatic, particularly if you're older like we all are

For younger fans may be easier, but there's too many memories, experiences associated with these older albums it's really hard to compare them.

I sort of look at Nas career in two parts. One is Illmatic to Life Is Good then Nasir to KD3.

Like God's Son, i always feel is a 4 to 4.5 mic album based on the time it came out. But right now based on the era, KD3 feels like a 5 mic album. But still feels difficult to put this above God's Son because of the nostalgia.

 

[Budda]

He’s slaughtering her on iTunes and ahead of her by one position on Apple Music. The support is there for Nas, I have NO IDEA where her sales are coming from.

Is she huge on Youtube like NBA Youngboy?

Yh she has two songs bigger than any Nas has put out in the last decades, FNF and Tomorrow ft Cardi B probably account for the majority of her streams.

 

[Thief's Theme]

#6 on rym.com for albums of the year of ALL GENRES

Best albums of 2024 - RYM/Sonemic

The greatest albums of 2024, as voted by RYM/Sonemic users

rateyourmusic.com

 

[Thief's Theme]

He’s slaughtering her on iTunes and ahead of her by one position on Apple Music. The support is there for Nas, I have NO IDEA where her sales are coming from.

Is she huge on Youtube like NBA Youngboy?

she has a huge hit, so the streams are through the roof, and probably tiktok is bumping the numbers

the way they count streams is so dumb, I don't get why the charts carry so much weight, I've never understood but it's even dumber than before

Taylor Swift had the top 10 songs one week, that shouldn't be possible

 

[Ziggiy]

i think it's just too hard to compare these new albums with albums like IWW, Stillmatic, particularly if you're older like we all are

For younger fans may be easier, but there's too many memories, experiences associated with these older albums it's really hard to compare them.

I sort of look at Nas career in two parts. One is Illmatic to Life Is Good then Nasir to KD3.

Like God's Son, i always feel is a 4 to 4.5 mic album based on the time it came out. But right now based on the era, KD3 feels like a 5 mic album. But still feels difficult to put this above God's Son because of the nostalgia.

Gods Son is one of those albums that came out during a transitional period in an artists career when they’ve decided their going to 100% do them but they still have the mainstream fanbase and star power to pull it off. For Michael Jackson I think it was Dangerous. For Prince well…Prince ALWAYS did him 100% but for arguments sake lets say Diamonds & Pearls. For Stevie Wonder it was Songs In The Key Of Life. For Nas its Gods Son.


Gods Son represents a TREMENDOUS leap forward in Nas growth as an artist. Its the catalyst for what makes him timeless and I think people really forget that. After the battle with Jay-Z, Nas had New York in the palm of his hand so much so that Hot 97 was FORCED to play Made You Look after Nas went on Power 105 and straight eviscerated Angie and Flex. Thats how hot that record was. He then did a 360 and dropped I Can, which ended up becoming his biggest hit. You had album cuts like Book Of Rhymes, Warrior Song, Dance, and Heaven that are amongst his catalogs most revered songs.

I believe 20-30 years from now when they do career perspectives and go back and re-critique and re-rate Nas albums, that Gods Son will have a much higher standing amongst Nas’s discography. It might even be considered top 3 when its all said and done

 

[Ziggiy]

she has a huge hit, so the streams are through the roof, and probably tiktok is bumping the numbers

the way they count streams is so dumb, I don't get why the charts carry so much weight, I've never understood but it's even dumber than before

Taylor Swift had the top 10 songs one week, that shouldn't be possible

Ok i’m not familiar with Glorilla at all but I know she had at least one hit song so I wasn’t sure if she was one of those artists who got hot off Youtube and most of her streams were coming from there or if she was a social media star or what.

I had no idea until recently that Tik Tok actually counted towards streams. Thats wild.

No disrespect to her, she seemed very happy that Nas shouted her out on KD3 but I just find it insane that an artist can be outselling another on the most popular music platform there is and STILL be charted under them

 

[Ziggiy]

#6 on rym.com for albums of the year of ALL GENRES

Best albums of 2024 - RYM/Sonemic

The greatest albums of 2024, as voted by RYM/Sonemic users

rateyourmusic.com

The fact that Cheat Codes is also on that list warms my heart. In a perfect, balanced, and fair world Aquamarine would nominated for Song Of The Year. Beautiful fukking music

 

[L. Deezy]

He’s slaughtering her on iTunes and ahead of her by one position on Apple Music. The support is there for Nas, I have NO IDEA where her sales are coming from.

Is she huge on Youtube like NBA Youngboy?

Lol..bro.. her songs play wayyyy more on other outlets. She on major radio. She on Sirius... Nas may get a older song played on Sirius, but not his new stuff. Well here and there it may show up..

 

[Ziggiy]

Lol..bro.. her songs play wayyyy more on other outlets. She on major radio. She on Sirius... Nas may get a older song played on Sirius, but not his new stuff. Well here and there it may show up..

I only asked because I don’t know anything about her. Like I said the whole sales thing is still weird to me even though i’ve been researching to get a better understanding. Seems like the shyt is just razzle dazzle unless you’re name is Taylor Swift, Drake, Bad Bunny, or that Morgan Wallen cac

 

[prophecypro]

He’s slaughtering her on iTunes and ahead of her by one position on Apple Music. The support is there for Nas, I have NO IDEA where her sales are coming from.

Is she huge on Youtube like NBA Youngboy?

Youtube and Spotify.
Spotify streaming is where the masses of young people go

 

[Edub]

Of his career?

I think so….

 

[Soymuscle Mike]

Gods Son is one of those albums that came out during a transitional period in an artists career when they’ve decided their going to 100% do them but they still have the mainstream fanbase and star power to pull it off. For Michael Jackson I think it was Dangerous. For Prince well…Prince ALWAYS did him 100% but for arguments sake lets say Diamonds & Pearls. For Stevie Wonder it was Songs In The Key Of Life. For Nas its Gods Son.


Gods Son represents a TREMENDOUS leap forward in Nas growth as an artist. Its the catalyst for what makes him timeless and I think people really forget that. After the battle with Jay-Z, Nas had New York in the palm of his hand so much so that Hot 97 was FORCED to play Made You Look after Nas went on Power 105 and straight eviscerated Angie and Flex. Thats how hot that record was. He then did a 360 and dropped I Can, which ended up becoming his biggest hit. You had album cuts like Book Of Rhymes, Warrior Song, Dance, and Heaven that are amongst his catalogs most revered songs.

I believe 20-30 years from now when they do career perspectives and go back and re-critique and re-rate Nas albums, that Gods Son will have a much higher standing amongst Nas’s discography. It might even be considered top 3 when its all said and done

All of this plus people forget (or might not be aware) that Gods Son was supposed to be a completely different album. He scrapped it last minute and went with the personal album we have now, I think he even deleted the original album entirely because he was naming a lot of names in the industry.

 

[Slim Charles]

obviously it'd be cool if Nas' album sold more but it's whatever to me. They didn't promote it so clearly Nas isn't too fussed so no reason for me to be too fussed either.

and overall i find the whole debate strange, because we're comparing apples to oranges. Hip hop is too broad to be comparing artists who are completely different and have different consumers. In rock music this never happened. No one would compare sales, success and popularity between some commercial rock group and one that is much more focused on the art of music. Not to sound elitist, but the market is different. Some shallow action film going to do better sales than say a Coen Brothers movie. Both can be enjoyable but they're appealing to different markets. But guess what? The Coen Brothers film from an artistic stand point is better. But no one slamming a movie loved by critics and movie buffs that it didn't top a blockbuster. Again I'm not being elitist as you can have good and bad commercial hip hop and good and bad more underground hip hop.

It's no coincidence to me that lot of other lyrical hip hop did similar numbers. The market that listens to what you could from a snobbish way call hip hop that's more focused on artistry/ lyrics is small. Obviously some break through still like Kendrick and Cole, just like in movies a Scorsese film can be a box office smash and loved by critics. But at the general level, it's different markets.

Those you could perhaps call 'hip hop heads' heard the Nas album and will be ranking it top 5 or top 10. And Nas would have had the people he wants to hear his music hear it.

 

[spliz]

Like i said before this sales shyt is a joke. No way to truly track if a label is inflating numbers or none of that shyt. Music is the only form of entertainment that counts “sales” without actually selling shyt. Lol. But honestly looking at how much Glorilla is posted, streamed, tik toked, etc etc. it ain’t even looking too bad for Nas considering hes independent with no promotion and if I was her I would be confused as fukk as to why my shyt so low as well. Put it like this. Imagine if Nas was streamed as much as her and had as many hot singles as her and still came up with those numbers. Everyone in here would be confused as fukk.

 

[HHID]

obviously it'd be cool if Nas' album sold more but it's whatever to me. They didn't promote it so clearly Nas isn't too fussed so no reason for me to be too fussed either.

and overall i find the whole debate strange, because we're comparing apples to oranges. Hip hop is too broad to be comparing artists who are completely different and have different consumers. In rock music this never happened. No one would compare sales, success and popularity between some commercial rock group and one that is much more focused on the art of music. Not to sound elitist, but the market is different. Some shallow action film going to do better sales than say a Coen Brothers movie. Both can be enjoyable but they're appealing to different markets. But guess what? The Coen Brothers film from an artistic stand point is better. But no one slamming a movie loved by critics and movie buffs that it didn't top a blockbuster. Again I'm not being elitist as you can have good and bad commercial hip hop and good and bad more underground hip hop.

It's no coincidence to me that lot of other lyrical hip hop did similar numbers. The market that listens to what you could from a snobbish way call hip hop that's more focused on artistry/ lyrics is small. Obviously some break through still like Kendrick and Cole, just like in movies a Scorsese film can be a box office smash and loved by critics. But at the general level, it's different markets.

Those you could perhaps call 'hip hop heads' heard the Nas album and will be ranking it top 5 or top 10. And Nas would have had the people he wants to hear his music hear it.

Perfect breakdown