Everything spoken on this album will hold up for years to come. The beats are great of course because Nas and Kanye are a winning combination (legends). You knew that already from Still Dreaming. Nas is at his best here, the flow is Nas(no typo) and the lyrics well written (obviously).
The song everything is amazing. I like White Label but also feel like the beat overbears Nas and I'm not sure if it's on purpose but you have to really zone in on what Nas is saying because the beat is so dope and overshadowing. I find myself rocking too hard with the words of the sample if you catch me? This is not the case for Cops Shot the Kid. Both still dope though.
I like the call outs of 'old heads' too, like on the song Adam and Eve:
It's evident they all the same, with gray hair and still mean mugging
Gray hairs of wisdom, that means you seen something.
Say something, you stay fronting
But these clowns got false crowns, fictional kings
The second verse of the song everything tells a mini story of children first being introduced to pain by way of immunization. Wondering why their parents(protectors) would let such a thing happen. As full understanding of such isn't grasped by the child but the pain of the moment also cannot be understood by one so young, and yet, in a way, it has to be.
I didn't speak much on Kanye because I knew his beats would deliver. His verse on Cop Shot the Kid was dope as well.
There's many quotables here. As always because Nas puts the work into his craft. I'm not going to list all of them (that made me hit visual coli smileys) but know that every song has several lines like that. But this is nothing new to fans of Nas. We know already and I hope the youth starts to latch on to this legend as well. Nas makes music for every one of us. There's material here for all.
This album is inspiring bars over great beats. The album is black excellence personified (nothing new for Nas). I feel like it's instant classic status and rarely do I say that. A great addition to his discography and a great addition to music. This will hold up. The subject matter will always be relevant. Like he said in Simple Things: "I'm looking in Longevity's eyes. I play with Infinity's mind, Forever's my guy...."
