Nas - Magic (Discussion Thread)

mobbinfms

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Krafty with a Pen way before I could Pack Em In:huhldup::ohhh::damn::wow:

Love this line, Nas does a thing where he makes bars that don’t rhyme kinda rhyme lol, I don’t know how to proper explain it or what the term is but it sounds dope.

:wow: missed that
What did you miss?
Can you slow it down and spell it out for us less intelligent posters? :lolbron:

200.gif
 

ThirdAct

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***1/2 from Allmusic.com: Magic - Nas | Songs, Reviews, Credits | AllMusic

"2020's King's Disease and its 2021 sequel King's Disease II represented a return to form for New York rap legend Nas, teaming with Hit-Boy for a steady drip of excellently crafted new material that took inspiration from early-'90s hip-hop classics but pushed beyond mere nostalgia. Both albums were received with more fan enthusiasm and critical regard than much of Nas' 2010s output. The nine-track album Magic is cut from a similar cloth as the King's Disease installments that preceded it, but works as more of a stopgap release to tide over listeners as King's Disease III is being finalized. Hit-Boy's thick, straightforward, and somewhat retro-stylized production again offers as much of a voice here as Nas' fluid rhyming and wizened lyricism. Summery beats and glitched-out soul samples make tracks like "Ugly" and "Hollywood Gangsta," and the huge fun of "Wave Gods" finds A$AP Rocky dropping in for a guest verse while DJ Premier scratches in some familiar hooks from the archives of golden-era rap."

Barely a review, more like a summary.
 
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***1/2 from Allmusic.com: Magic - Nas | Songs, Reviews, Credits | AllMusic

"2020's King's Disease and its 2021 sequel King's Disease II represented a return to form for New York rap legend Nas, teaming with Hit-Boy for a steady drip of excellently crafted new material that took inspiration from early-'90s hip-hop classics but pushed beyond mere nostalgia. Both albums were received with more fan enthusiasm and critical regard than much of Nas' 2010s output. The nine-track album Magic is cut from a similar cloth as the King's Disease installments that preceded it, but works as more of a stopgap release to tide over listeners as King's Disease III is being finalized. Hit-Boy's thick, straightforward, and somewhat retro-stylized production again offers as much of a voice here as Nas' fluid rhyming and wizened lyricism. Summery beats and glitched-out soul samples make tracks like "Ugly" and "Hollywood Gangsta," and the huge fun of "Wave Gods" finds A$AP Rocky dropping in for a guest verse while DJ Premier scratches in some familiar hooks from the archives of golden-era rap."

Barely a review, more like a summary.


Allmusic usually grades on a pretty hard curve so I won't give them too much grief. They don’t seem to have an agenda like say Pitchfork. 3.5 is the score they gave KD1 and they gave KD2 a 4 just for context.
 

ArchStanton

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but works as more of a stopgap release to tide over listeners as King's Disease III is being finalized

Not being funny but this was my worry with him saying Magic was just to feed the buzz--some idiots are treating it like a throwaway instead of judging the music on its own merits. It's not like we really needed him to drop an album to hold us over as a lot of us were still playing KDII and even the first one for that matter--my feeling is he did it because he must have made some new material and realized he had an album there that hung together. But some critics are taking that one line far too literally.

I usually don't get that worked up on reviews but this is going to stand the test of time as a classic IMO, and some are missing the boat.
 
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Love this line, Nas does a thing where he makes bars that don’t rhyme kinda rhyme lol, I don’t know how to proper explain it or what the term is but it sounds dope.
You could be talking about assonance (repeated vowel sounds) or how the multisyllabic rhyme doesn't perfectly match up. It's possible to rewrite the line so that it does, but Nas is unlikely to force rhymes into place. Sometimes, it'll sound like he didn't rhyme like the ending bars on Money is My bytch, because he didn't emphasize it and just went with what's natural.
 

ThirdAct

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but works as more of a stopgap release to tide over listeners as King's Disease III is being finalized

Not being funny but this was my worry with him saying Magic was just to feed the buzz--some idiots are treating it like a throwaway instead of judging the music on its own merits. It's not like we really needed him to drop an album to hold us over as a lot of us were still playing KDII and even the first one for that matter--my feeling is he did it because he must have made some new material and realized he had an album there that hung together. But some critics are taking that one line far too literally.

I usually don't get that worked up on reviews but this is going to stand the test of time as a classic IMO, and some are missing the boat.

I get what you're saying but I still like Nas flex of putting out some undeniably hard shyt and then acting like it's nothing. Like "I can make classics in my sleep" lol.
 

HHID

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One of the best Magic reviews I've read is actually..... in French...

If you care to activate the Google translate function on your browser...
Magic - Chronique - Abcdr du Son

It does have the usual Illmatic intro, but it does point out that this is, 30 years deep into his career, his second skipless album since... 1994.
Says the Nas/Hit duo is on an exponential curve, gets all the references like the Just Blaze early 2000s on 40-16, Primo's Living Proof drums on Waves God's etc...

Says it sparks again the GOAT discussions and now Nas' recent work should get him the lead
 
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JustCKing

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Allmusic usually grades on a pretty hard curve so I won't give them too much grief. They don’t seem to have an agenda like say Pitchfork. 3.5 is the score they gave KD1 and they gave KD2 a 4 just for context.

Allmusic has toned it down a bit, but they used to be EXTREMELY hard on Nas. Look up the reviews for Stillmatic, Lost Tapes, I Am, and It Was Written. Some of the statements on Life Is Good were harsh too and didn't have anything to do with music. Still, I find Allmusic to be credible for the most part even when I disagree with them.
 

erker

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One of the best Magic reviews I've read is actually..... in French...

If you care to activate the Google translate function on your browser...
Magic - Chronique - Abcdr du Son

It does have the usual Illmatic intro, but it does point out that this is, 30 years deep into his career, his second skipless album since... 1994.
Says the Nas/Hit duo is on an exponential curve, gets all the references like the Just Blaze early 2000s on 40-16, Primo's Living Proof drums on Waves God's etc...

Says it sparks again the GOAT discussions and now Nas' recent work should get him the lead

I agreed with everything in your summary of this French article except the last sentence.
:scust:

This shouldn't spark no goat discussion and he is not trying to get the lead. He been #1 for decades.
:blessed:
 

Alexander Wiggin

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One of the best Magic reviews I've read is actually..... in French...

If you care to activate the Google translate function on your browser...
Magic - Chronique - Abcdr du Son

It does have the usual Illmatic intro, but it does point out that this is, 30 years deep into his career, his second skipless album since... 1994.
Says the Nas/Hit duo is on an exponential curve, gets all the references like the Just Blaze early 2000s on 40-16, Primo's Living Proof drums on Waves God's etc...

Says it sparks again the GOAT discussions and now Nas' recent work should get him the lead

I'm French so I'm kinda proud that we actually grade the goat with fairness and gave magic a professional review without the disgusting usual bias. Only thing I'm not in tune with is iww, the lost tapes and the 2 kings disease are also skipless
 

HHID

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I agreed with everything in your summary of this French article except the last sentence.
:scust:

This shouldn't spark no goat discussion and he is not trying to get the lead. He been #1 for decades.
:blessed:

I think he meant it for the broader audience, and for those that have been gradually weighing Nas higher after his recent run. Even the Jay fans, like say Mike D from According2Hiphop. I've seen the debate bring brought up recently more than in the last decade


I'm French so I'm kinda proud that we actually grade the goat with fairness and gave magic a professional review without the disgusting usual bias. Only thing I'm not in tune with is iww, the lost tapes and the 2 kings disease are also skipless

Oh yeah I remember u being French! Yeah that was one one the most bullshyt-free reviews I've read so far. I was kinda mad too he didn't mention Lost Tapes. I could argue IWW being skipless also. But really those 3 are in a different league with how they flow.

I can play both KDs without skipping, but there's a wider gap here between the stronger and the weaker joints, and I'll probably end up doing my own playlist with the best tracks.

On Magic (or Illmatic) you just can't/don't do that. Of course it helps that the albums are half an hour too.
 
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