Nas - Magic (Discussion Thread)

[Ziggiy]

that is just a trailer

footage is old and people been seen it

also backpack rap is blackstarr, common, etc that is a fact if you were around back then

rawkus = backpack rap

nas was dead to rights dissin them; they was wild hippocrites back then

roots dissed everybody wit the "what they do" video/song then turn around and play ny state of mind and shook ones as jayz's backup band

soon as nas threw shade back every soulquarian artist under the sun dissed nas

just another reason he the best

Common is not backpack rap. He’s similar to Nas in that he can tow the line between Street/Conscious/Pro Black/Storytelling etc

 

[spliz]

I listened again to the KRS bit from Nas on the podcast and it sounded way better the second time now the the initial shock of him saying what he said wiped away. I get what he was trying to say I don’t think he was tryna be disrespectful.

 

[The Dust King]

I doubt he was getting at Common, he was cool with Com back then (check the Ghetto Dreams single cover) or even Mos and Talib. I'm thinking he was getting more at the abrasive underground weirdo avant garde white boy rap that was starting to rise in the late 90's early 00's like El-P and Aesop Rock when he said backpackers.

Nas wasn't talking about that type. he was talking more this type

no disrespect fellas but im sharing cuz im caring

i was around for it all in real time

i dont need definitions or links etc. if yall disagree cool but im not debatin facts

im from queens i was really outside

backpack rap is rawkus the roots etc

fat beats was a place i frequented. yall are wrong

also common dissed nas on the be album

 

[IllmaticDelta]

Common is not backpack rap. He’s similar to Nas in that he can tow the line between Street/Conscious/Pro Black/Storytelling etc

I Think Common was backpack in the same lane as Mos Def and Talib before the "Be" album w/ Kanye.

 

[Ziggiy]

I Think Common was backpack in the same lane as Mos Def and Talib before the "Be" album w/ Kanye.

Nah listen to his first three albums. Nothing backpack about those joints. Their all similar in their own way to Nas’s formula and Common has admitted being heavily influenced by Nas early in his career and completely switching up his flow after Illmatic dropped.

 

[The Dust King]

Common is not backpack rap. He’s similar to Nas in that he can tow the line between Street/Conscious/Pro Black/Storytelling etc

this my last post on this because im not trying to debate im jus here sharin facts

backpack rap died in the late 2000s after all the soulquarians moved on

Common is not backpack rap. He’s similar to Nas in that he can tow the line between Street/Conscious/Pro Black/Storytelling etc

my last post on this because im not here to debate im here to share facts

backpack rap died at some point in the mid 2000s after all its champions abandoned they stances

backpack rap is not white, backpack rap is people who wore bookbags and listened to underground hiphop

some were graf heads, some skaters, some dealers etc

common was backpack on the east and west coast. cant speak for midwest or south

anything rawkus affiliated

nas is not backpack rap after he sold out for it was written according to everyone

essentially nas is the blueprint for backpack rap

 

[mson]

The whole "Backpack" shyt started with Blackmoon & Boot Camp. They had that image. And the extra lyrical, miracle, dusty nikkas created the term from that imagery.

Quest has had something to say about Nas since he said that shyt about being present when Nas lost to Biggie at the Source Awards. Then Roots threw shots on 'What They Do'. Then the MTV Unplugged shyt happened.

Thought joked about smacking Nas, but that wasn't going to happen. Seems like they deaded whatever it was. Nas sat in with The Roots on Fallon, and he gave Thought high praise on his list of rappers some time after.

 

[IllmaticDelta]

Nah listen to his first three albums. Nothing backpack about those joints. Their all similar in their own way to Nas’s formula and Common has admitted being heavily influenced by Nas early in his career and completely switching up his flow after Illmatic dropped.

The OG backpack is more pre-IWW Nas but that late 90s type gave birth to the stereotypical image that we think of today

 

[up in here]

Roots, Rawkus and Common was all lumped in with backpack rap. Common was a street dude but he got lumped with them by association.

Nas definitely didn’t fukk with the soulquarian movement. He very specifically didn’t fukk with The Roots after the “what they do” video where they was mocking Nas and Biggie.

funniest shyt is that all them backpack rappers was originally Nas stans, or at least illmatic fans. And thing that killed the backpack movement was ironically The Roots backing Jay-Z for unplugged, which Black Thought didn’t even want them to do. Jay was the antithesis of the movement. And even though Nas and The Roots had issues, most of the backpack scene was still Nas fans deep down and was rocking with Nas in the battle.

That’s why Nas never caught a lot of flack for calling The Roots c00ns, cause even in the backpack scene a lot of folks felt that was a sellout move The Roots did.

backpack rap was just a subsection of the larger underground scene and the underground always fukked with Nas

 

[InstantKlassik]

Why don’t y’all discuss this in the Nas thread instead of an album thread.

 

[the cool]

Nah listen to his first three albums. Nothing backpack about those joints. Their all similar in their own way to Nas’s formula and Common has admitted being heavily influenced by Nas early in his career and completely switching up his flow after Illmatic dropped.

i always thought common was a backpack rappper cuz he was on all the rawkus records and featured on tablib and mos albums

 

[Ziggiy]

i always thought common was a backpack rappper cuz he was on all the rawkus records and featured on tablib and mos albums

Nope. He started out as a street rapper. Then he kind of melded street/consciousness/ and storytelling in his second album Resurrection. Resurrection has a clear Nas influence as Com slowed his flow down to the more conversational style that Nas perfected. By his third album he was pretty much a complete artist. He’s NEVER been a backpack rapper despite his association with the soulquarions. I hesitate to even call Mos Def a backpack rapper but this conversation has already gone too far askew of discussing Magic.

 

[Life is Good]

Why don’t y’all change the thread title to backpackers?

 

[Life is Good]

I bet you more time was spent talking about Nas’ views on backpackers than listening/streaming the Magic album.

 

[Piff Perkins]

Common clearly became a backpacker by Like Water For Chocolate though. I agree he didn’t start as a backpacker but by the time he was fukking Badu and joining the Soulquarians? Backpack rap.