Nas - Magic (Discussion Thread)

[Ziggiy]

40-16, Hollywood Gangsta and Dedicated

That’s my shyt right now.

40-16 so goddamn HARD.


I thought Meet Joe Black was the flyest song on the album but its 40-16. Song should be a single along with Wave Gods

 

[up in here]

40-16 so goddamn HARD.


I thought Meet Joe Black was the flyest song on the album but its 40-16. Song should be a single along with Wave Gods

I slept on 40-16 at first cause the beat song like Just Blaze lite. But Nas was spitting his ass off on that joint

 

[Thief's Theme]

Hollywood Gangsta is a top 15 Nas song all time for me, maybe higher

 

[H.S.]

The "NAS, NAS, NAS" with the "Nas is like" playing low underneath it

It's like the exclamation mark after Nas's verse lol. Gets me hype every time.

 

[spliz]

And yes is what I'm getting at. This is why you'll never have people questioning Jay's beat selection even if the song is wack. A lot of us think "Change Clothes" is wack, but the masses nor the critics are going to point that out because:

1) It is a hit record

2) It is a hit record produced by The Neptunes at the height of The Neptunes run.

And this was amplified by the fact that Rollingstone gave Blueprint 3 a 3.5 star rating initially and then put it in like the Top 10 of their albums of the year list because "Empire State of Mind" took off. You're not going to see criticism of production on a hit song even if its wack (see Eminem).

Nas gets hit with criticism because he doesn't play the game. The success of his albums didn't depend on hit records or albums packed with production from the top producers, which is why every album since Illmatic caught criticism.

Nas has gotten criticism for like every one of his hit records. Dating back to IWW. Lol. So..

 

[JustCKing]

Nas has gotten criticism for like every one of his hit records. Dating back to IWW. Lol. So..

The criticism wasn't because the beats were wack though. It was because Nas was held to the standard of "Hip Hop Messiah" by the media. The same media crucified him because he didn't do what they wanted. Lauryn Hill said it best "they hail you then nail you".

 

[spliz]

The criticism wasn't because the beats were wack though. It was because Nas was held to the standard of "Hip Hop Messiah" by the media. The same media crucified him because he didn't do what they wanted. Lauryn Hill said it best "they hail you then nail you".

His criticism was also because they act like his hit records is of some kind of lower quality than everyone else. Is the reason why Jay can get away with certain beats Nas couldn’t get away with rapping over. Nas would NEVER be able to do Aint No nikka. They would say it’s trash and that Nas raps over wack beats. nikkas shyt on Dr Knockboot like crazy and that beat ain’t much of a different vibe than Aint No nikka. And u can clearly hear it’s like an interlude/joke song.

 

[JustCKing]

His criticism was also because they act like his hit records is of some kind of lower quality than everyone else. Is the reason why Jay can get away with certain beats Nas couldn’t get away with rapping over. Nas would NEVER be able to do Aint No nikka. They would say it’s trash and that Nas raps over wack beats. nikkas shyt on Dr Knockboot like crazy and that beat ain’t much of a different vibe than Aint No nikka. And u can clearly hear it’s like an interlude/joke song.

A lot of people, even Jay Z stans, hate the beat for "Ain't No". I've heard it called '70's porn music.

 

[JustCKing]

The one glaring thing that the media did do in terms of bias in regard to the production on Nas and Jay albums is this: praise No I.D. as one of the GOATs of Hip Hop production for his work on 4;44 as if No I.D. hadn't been putting in work for years and had did several joints on Life Is Good, which was also some of his best work. They really went in with the push to crown No I.D. and give him his flowers when 4;44 dropped.

 

[IllmaticDelta]

Nas has gotten criticism for like every one of his hit records. Dating back to IWW. Lol. So..

Cats want(ed) Nas to be a dusty backpack rapper; many say, Illmatic caused/birthed the schism between "underground rap" vs "mainstream"

Illmatic has also helped to shape the attitudes and perceptions of hip hop fans, who cherish it as a music template that defines the genre's conventions. As music critic Jeff Weiss writes, “Illmatic is the gold standard that boom-bap connoisseurs refer to in the same way that Baby Boomers talk about Highway 61 Revisited. The evidence they point to when they want to say: this is how good it can be.”[26] New York Times columnist Jon Caramanica also credits the album with inadvertently spawning hip hop's counterculture. "Illmatic" he writes, "mobilized a national network of dissidents craving something true to the streets but eager to distance themselves from what was beginning to be perceived as a scourge – gangster rap." According to Caramanica, Nas' debut was received by these fans as a "rebuke" towards trends that were beginning to shape mainstream rap: "the pop crossover, the exuberant production values, [and] the splintering of rap into blithe and concerned wings."[122]

For this reason, Caramanica considers Illmatic to be "unusually significant to the intellectual development of the [hip-hop] genre" yet he also remains critical of the divisiveness spawned by its "zealots."[122] In his essay, "'Night Time is More Trife Than Ever': The Many Misuses of Nas," he writes: "Illmatic is responsible for countless pointless 'rap versus hip-hop debates,' a shocking amount of hip-hop self-righteousness, the emergence of the backpack movement as something more than a regional curio, and the persistence of the idea that lyricism is the only standard great rap music should be held to."[122] Commenting on these polarized debates, Jeff Weiss suggests that Illmatic is "best heard by ignoring the dogma, culture wars, Nas clones, and would-be saviors that have accreted since April of 1994. Who cares whether it's the greatest rap album of all-time or not? It's an example of how great rap can be, but not necessarily the way it should be."[26]'

this divide was basically championed by people that hated on the IWW's direction such as Questlove and Q-Tip; because of this, sh1t that Biggie and Jayz would/could get away with, Nas couldn't because they (Illmatic fans) always want(ed) Nas stay on that dusty boom bap steeze even though, IWW is less commercial sounding (much darker) than both of Biggie's albums (RTD and LAD) and all of Jayz early stuff (RD, Vol 1, Vol 2 etc..)

 

[Amestafuu (Emeritus)]

We really fukked up as a community letting all these cacs and nikka nerds,make a living reviewing our culture
I honestly have never given a fukk about magazine writers and critics in my life
I wish rappers and producers would have come together and put a stop to that bullshyt long time ago
I mean, I'd listen to another rapper's critique of an album
fukk everybody else

only c00ns say nikka nerd, some of the best Black writers were scholars and did justice to the game. you are dragging their names with that stupid slur as well

 

[spliz]

Cats want(ed) Nas to be a dusty backpack rapper; many say, Illmatic caused/birthed the schism between "underground rap" vs "mainstream"




this divide was basically championed by people that hated on the IWW's direction such as Questlove and Q-Tip; because of this, sh1t that Biggie and Jayz would/could get away with, Nas couldn't because they (Illmatic fans) always want(ed) Nas stay on that dusty boom bap steeze even though, IWW is less commercial sounding (much darker) than both of Biggie's albums (RTD and LAD) and all of Jayz early stuff (RD, Vol 1, Vol 2 etc..)

Exactly. It was ALWAYS about the production tho. And that’s the point im making. I don’t even know why this is an argument. Nas gets unfair criticism and boxed in when it comes to his beats. U still have a section of people shytting on the beats on these Hit Boy albums. If Nas did nikkas In Paris. They would say the beat is wack.

 

[spliz]

A lot of people, even Jay Z stans, hate the beat for "Ain't No". I've heard it called '70's porn music.

So u think it gets any where near the criticism Nas would’ve gotten? Bruh come on. Lol.

 

[Prolific_1011]

"I'm on offense everyday until I see the Love"

Dude is going to keep dropping classics until his naysayers tap out.

 

[spliz]

The one glaring thing that the media did do in terms of bias in regard to the production on Nas and Jay albums is this: praise No I.D. as one of the GOATs of Hip Hop production for his work on 4;44 as if No I.D. hadn't been putting in work for years and had did several joints on Life Is Good, which was also some of his best work. They really went in with the push to crown No I.D. and give him his flowers when 4;44 dropped.

Of course they did. No ID damn near Exec produced LIG. They acted like that didn’t happen after 4:44 dropped.