Nas - Magic 2 (Discussion thread)

[Surreal]

Damn Black Magic is straight outta Memphis

 

[areohbee824]

What It Really Means, Slow It Down & Pistols On Your Album Cover all in a row to close out is

 

[Awesome Wells]

Its because there isn’t a meet Joe black or 40-16 building off first listen here that grabs you

But then you hear like Motion, Office Hours, Slow it Down and it’s like okay that makes sense

I think if this run with Hit Boy proves he’s not gonna just grab beats from everyone and hope it sticks cohesively. He’d rather work with one person with a diverse range and can help with album sequence and maybe even challenge his delivery.

There’s a lot of dudes who are better producers than Hit but I don’t know if they given Nas those last two parts

I think Nas wants to do exactly what you said. He's been trying to build that kinda connection with one producer since way back, when I was around him in the studio all the time. So I can see why he's giving Hit mad chances with these projects. But I think he'll also do something forever until it absolutely just bottoms out, rather than see the limitations beforehand. The same thing happened with him and Salaam.

There are just certain producers who don’t have the range to carry the kinda volume that he's trying to get out of this partnership with Hit. He needs someone who just has endless dope tracks, and can work at the level of his talent. I think Hit benefits more from just being associated with Nas, at this point. Nas should just be working with someone that's more on his level. This Hit-Boy sh*t ain't gonna magically turn into Primo and Guru or Pete Rock and C.L. Hit's too limited.

 

[Ziggiy]

If 50 would have just played hype man for Nas like Large Pro did on Locomotive it would be a 5/5 track. Nas took a shyt on 50 lyrically. Its almost embarrassing that 50 was once a PROFESSIONAL multiplatinum rapper and let Nas just completely and utterly outclass him.

 

[JayBaldacci]

disappointed, from a rapper that's 50, 30 years into his career, who dropped 4 borderline classic albums in 3 years

all the KDs got better with each one... it was logic to expect this to be at least as good... but we don't even get that... we get arguably the worst project so far. That justifies the disappointment...

 

[JodyHiighroller]

@Ziggiy
Hit-boy let Nas down. Alchemist woulda did the album justice.

@Cladyclad thoughts on the album?

 

[Hannibal Fox]

Slow It Down Sample

P and Alc

Spoiler

 

[Playaz Eyez]

I dig this album but it’s definitely #4 of the last 5 albums. And I mostly have it in front of the first Magic just cause I haven’t listened to the one in awhile.

 

[Ziggiy]

@Ziggiy
Hit-boy let Nas down. Alchemist woulda did the album justice.

@Cladyclad thoughts on the album?

I’m enjoying this album immensely. I don’t give a fukk about anyone else except my OWN enjoyment and this shyt is fire.

fukk Alchemist. Go run up them Boldy James streams. I ain’t talking about no other producer in this thread again

 

[HNIC973]

Pistols on your album cover is just

 

[Supa]

This here.

Just saw mad people say the same. And that's thing about Hit's production, it's always been flat and soulless, for the most part. And that's because he's automating a lot of his sh*t and letting DAW's do the work, rather than actually banging out his tracks by hand like the greats do. And that cheap feel definitely comes through when you hear the music. Comes across mad lazy.

If you don’t know any better, you won't hear it. But there's no feel to production like that, and it actually affects the MC too. Nas doesn't sound like he's focused on this, at all. He's one of the best ever, but you can hear that he's not sounding as inspired as he was on the last couple joints.

I always felt that way about Hit Boy's production but he at least covered that up on certain songs with instrumentation. KD2 is my favorite production wise and what's funny is that's the album he said he had help. The sounds were more full and rich. This album is so hollow. That piano loop on Pistols sounds like a preset pattern off a Fisher Price keyboard. There's horns and strings that are straight tinny. They're just lifeless, flat, and completely devoid of any soul.

Hit dropped the ball on this.

 

[InstantKlassik]

This here.

Just saw mad people say the same. And that's thing about Hit's production, it's always been flat and soulless, for the most part. And that's because he's automating a lot of his sh*t and letting DAW's do the work, rather than actually banging out his tracks by hand like the greats do. And that cheap feel definitely comes through when you hear the music. Comes across mad lazy.

If you don’t know any better, you won't hear it. But there's no feel to production like that, and it actually affects the MC too. Nas doesn't sound like he's focused on this, at all. He's one of the best ever, but you can hear that he's not sounding as inspired as he was on the last couple joints.

Breh you are literally crying in here

 

[HARLEM AL]

@Ziggiy
Hit-boy let Nas down. Alchemist woulda did the album justice.

@Cladyclad thoughts on the album?

You buggin. Beats on this is flames

 

[HNIC973]

Twitter seems to love it so far lol

 

[Tim Lord]

First listen, this is just a first impression.

This isn't a bad project at all. Most of the tracks are cool for what they are.

But calling it "Magic 2" is where they messed up. It had people's expectations a bit too high.

The songs are cool, beats are good and Nas is rapping. It will take a few more listens for the lyrics to set in and riding around in the car to really see how this album feels since it's a summer release.

I like "Pistols on Your Album Cover".

Having said that, it's the weakest first impression on the Nas/Hit boy run.

Edit: Nas the only rapper to yell out "It's Murda" with Irv/Ja and then "G-G-G- Unit" with 50. Queens King right there.