Mike the Executioner
What went on up there? Poppers and weird sex!
KD2 definitely felt like KD1, just more grandiose. The way I see it, the King's Disease albums have more of a red carpet feeling, with production that always felt like Hit-Boy found new equipment with each part of the trilogy. It's like how Michael Jackson always wanted his albums to sound ahead of their time, with the newest technology. Compare KD1 which was released at the height of the pandemic and KD3 which was the highly anticipated album released at the end of 2022. One sounds quieter and warmer, and the other one sounds more urgent and in your face.
The Magic series is more for experimentation. Magic 1 was an underground mixtape released as an album, almost like you weren't supposed to ever hear those songs. This is the kind of album Nas could make in his sleep, but it's cold and harsh in a way the KD albums weren't. Magic 2 doesn't sound like the first one, but Nas is rapping over stuff that wouldn't fit on the KD albums ("Bokeem Woodbine," "Black Magic," "Slow it Down"). The production/mixing has this grime and unpolished feel to it, mostly because Dave Kim had limited time to get it finished. Once again, it has that feeling of an underground mixtape.
Magic 3 sounds more grandiose than the first two, but not in the same way as the KD trilogy. It reminds me of Magic 1 in that it's cold and harsh at times ("Fever," "TSK," "Pretty Young Girl," "Sitting with My Thoughts"), but it has a little KD sprinkled in ("Jodeci Member," "Blue Bentley," "Japanese Soul Bar"). Magic 3 sounds like a rock album, and I could see Nas performing these songs in concert with a live band. You could throw in drum solos and guitar riffs to these songs and all of a sudden, it's like listening to arena rock in the 80s. "No Tears" is pretty much a rock ballad if you remove the raps.
