Aight I finally got a few listens in the speakers and in headphones...as a Nas stan who is not a fan of Kanye...
1. Not For Radio - I mentioned earlier that this one reminded me of N.I.G.G.E.R. (Slave & The Master). Beat is good enough and Nas does his thing on this one. I like the addition of Diddy since he wasnt on the live stream version. 4/5
2. Cops Shot the Kid - I HATED this song during the live stream. it grew on me after the album finally dropped esp since Nas always raps on beats like this and gets his Rakim on. I do think this track needed a 3rd verse from Nas. His verse was good but not great. Kanye's verse was Kanye...it was cool and had its standout lines. 4/5
3. White Label - This one reminds me of something off Jay-Z's last few albums production-wise. I like the track though and its definitley one of my favorites. The heart physician line was a wack line imo. 4/5
4. Bonjour - The singing on this song is GREAT. This one might be my favorite but it changes each listen. 4/5
5. Everything - I hated this one on the live stream because it had so much of a Kanye sound with the high pitch singing and i thought the beat sounded like some of the shyt Eminem has been rapping to on Recovery and MMLP2..After really getting to listen to the legit version though this is easily my favorite song on the album. Kanye's singing is trash and i dont like the autotune but i feel all the shyt he's saying in the hook and it still works. I really like The Dream's parts and Nas killed it except for a few parts. The message was kind of scattered but thats a true Nas song trait. Is that shyt really anti vacc? It didnt really sound like that to me but
4.5/5
6. Adam & Eve - Another song with great singing that really puts the song on another level. Nas kills this one. He might be his most lyrically sharp on this one. I love the little subliminal supposedly about Nicki. I've heard this sample on other tracks before but i love how Nas sounds on this one. This is def in my top 2. 4.5/5
7. Simple Things - I didn't like this one on the live stream either. I said in a previous post that the beat was trash. I still think the beat is underwhelming and melancholy. I feel like this is a good throwaway song. A couple good lines on this track but overall this one is an easy skip and it ends super abrupt and the album is over 3/5.
Overall I'd rate this a 4/5. Its a good project but I definitely think it needed at least 3 more songs on it to really round it out. It just feels like something is missing even though the songs have so many moments that make me like them. Every time i listen to this it just makes me turn on one of Nas' older albums and run back history
Hopefully these joints grow on me more. I'd hate to chime back in later and take my review back
