Nas - NASIR (Discussion Thread)

Nero Christ

Sniper out now on all digital platforms brev
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after listening for the whole weekend, I can say this is very good :obama: only gripes is that on White Label & CSTK, it feels and sounds like Nas is trying to fight the beat or vice versa and they're not as cohesive as they could've been, but everything else is great.

the GOAT is byke...Bonjour
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Official sales projections are out.

They have initial projections for Nasir at 85-90k (with 40-50k Pure sales) which would have him debuting at number 3.



Jay/Be are battling for number 1 at 115-125k

I think both of their trajectories will increase on the coming days. Both Kanye and KSG albums increased

Nas will top out at 100k and Jay/Be will push upwards of 200k
 

Shadow

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On first listen the White Label beat was overpowering to me but now I keep going back to that song. :wow:

The way he flows on the second verse to Simple Things is dope:

"Roll no dice, throw no aces, with my gangsters, we discussing buying acres, other safe bets, nothing regular or basic, riding back to back, me and Jungle in some spaceships, where the squad at?"

Adam and Eve is straight bars and wordplay done so well. The way this line is delivered and put together: "What come first, peace or the paper? Before I had a piece of paper peace was in my favor" is dope and reminds me of "Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled peppers." Though, maybe it's me getting myself tongue tied trying to repeat the line multiple times? :laugh:

Not to mention that oh my god/lord rhyme scheme at the beginning of the song which sounds like it could be the hook to another song (the scheme at least).
 

ItWasWritten

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Better than life is Good....

I dont know about that, but I'm really fukkin with Nasir

I will say on Life is Good, The God seemed to have more enthusiasm, This latest Nas .....sounds sort of like if he never put out music again he would be content; excpet from Adam and Eve of course.
 

Mike the Executioner

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First major review is out.

Rolling Stone.

2.5/5 stars

Of course the Cacs hated Not For Radio:stopitslime:




After the longest dormant period of his career, Nas returned last week with Nasir, the slightest, lowest-concept record in his discography. It’s executive produced by Kanye West––a generation-defining genius maybe, but just as importantly: the guy who produced “Takeover," Jay-Z's epochal 2001 evisceration of Nas. It’s the fourth of five G.O.O.D. Music albums dropped in five weeks, all overseen by Kanye, all seven songs long. It also comes in the midst of scandal for both men. West, as has been well-documented, started promoting this string of albums by flirting with the online alt-right and loudly proclaiming his love for Donald Trump. Less global but maybe graver: in April, Nas’s ex-wife, the artist-turned-chef Kelis, gave an interview in which she alleged brutal physical violence at the rapper’s hands. (Nas had previously been accused of striking Carmen Bryan, the mother of his daughter, in Bryan’s 2006 autobiography.)

Nas hasn't publicly addressed the allegations from Kelis, and he doesn't broach the subject on Nasir, either, unless you count an oblique line on the closer, “Simple Things” (“Was loving women you’ll never see me / All you know’s my kids’ mothers, some celebrities / Damn, look at the jealousy”). In fact, even considering the short running time, there’s little in the way of narrative or thematic design. It’s among Nas’s most scattered records, unfocused and unclear. And when it comes to simple execution, Nasir plays to his weaknesses as a writer and finds him staid and tired where Life Is Good probed for new ground, clumsy and subdued where he’s often been breathtaking.

Nas has, in the past, been a near-peerless writer when dealing in autobiography or writing linear, detail-rich narrative. He’s generally been at his least effective when he’s at his most abstract, or when he’s mulling over grandiose theories. Nasir’s opener, “Not For Radio,” dives headlong into a list of theories, some reasonable and some (“Fox News was started by a black dude”) easily disproved. Despite that, the song almost works––it sounds like a villain’s theme from a b-movie, and Puff is flown in simply to talk shyt––but Nas’s verses are ultimately too pedestrian, as writing and as performance.

While Nas has never been the most musically gifted rapper, he’s been a precise technician, able to rap exceptionally both with and againstthe beat. On Nasir, though, he often plods, which leaves his writing exposed. This makes for songs that are, frankly, a drag: “Bonjour” is a long-winded argument that Nas goes on a lot of dates, and “White Label” is basically content to revel in the fact that Nas has become a successful investor. (The latter song features a true late-Nas head scratcher: “What you love can kill you / Like a heart physician dying of a heart attack.”) While the seven-song format has served both Pusha-T and Kid Cudiwell, and while Nas has made perhaps the greatest short rap record ever in his classic 1994 debut Illmatic, the brevity doesn’t do him any favors here. The two dominant modes on Nasir are self-satisfaction and a sort of workmanlike stiffness, neither of which suits Nas and both of which make the album’s 26 minutes seem far longer.



'Nasir' Is the One Thing the Rapper has Never Been Before – Dull

This is the same magazine that gave Midnight Marauders two stars. Some people have no business reviewing hip hop.
 
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