I was spinning Streets Disciple today in it's entirety and I was straight up reminded why this album specifically made me a hardcore Nas fan. I've seen posters on this board refer to this album as WORSE than Nastradmus which I just can't for the life of me understand the reasoning. This album, along with God's Son, is probably the zenith of GROWN MAN Hip Hop. THIS is the type of album that, in my opinion, Jay-Z stumbled making when he dropped Kingdom Come. This album encompasses the entirety of Nas as a human being. Strengths, faults, insecurities, weaknesses, his feelings on relationships, politics, marriage, his child, his parents, his idols, his enemies, he left NOTHING out. You got a little bit of Nasty Nas the street poet, Escobar The flashy Don, God's Son the wizened Warrior, and Nastradamus the Prophet of Hip Hop. As we wish one of the greatest writers that this genre has ever introduced, let us re-evaluate what has become one of his most controversial, devisive, and polarizing projects...
Disc 1
1). Intro- The album's Genesis starts with Nasir Jones (The Man) speaking to an unknown and unvoiced companion. He apologizes for being late, explaining that it was his night of parental duties to watch his daughter. He continues on to the let the silent companion know that he is indeed aware that "they know we talkin." He laments aloud wondering why "they can't leave us alone." It is at this point that Nas pledges undying loyalty to his companion, remarking "You know I'm always going to stand up for you, and I'll know you'll stand up for me too." Right here it is my interpretation that Nas is speaking to the personification of Hip Hop itself. Two years before he would declare the artform "Dead", he was attempting to console, comfort, and defend this genre of music which he has been in musical relationship with since the age of 17. This is his attempt to let Hip Hop (and Everybody) know that through the ups and downs, he's sticking by the genre, and that no matter what critics would say about his attempts at mainstream success ("Critics bug and say Nastradamus just wasn't one of my hardest/ Sold over a Mill Regardleas") Nor how enemies would attempt assassinate his character ("Is it Oochie Wally Wally or is it One Mic?/ Is It Black Girl Lost or Shorty Owe You Ice?") His relationship with Hip Hop remains pure and unspoiled. He concludes his diatribe with a fiery call for Hip Hop and it's artists to "Study, stay strong, Don't Cry no more. Get ready, get prepared, this is prophecy! God is with Us........."
2). Message To The Feds, Sincerely We The People- "I walk the blocks like whatever God, my message to y'all Feds/ Who desperate to arrest us/ Young benevolent hard heads/Abercrombie and Fitch/Rockin Wrist glistening marksmen/ Hitchcock of Hip Hop since Big-PAC departed"*
So begins the opening track to Nasir's magnum opus. Here we can clearly see that Nas is blending together the views of project street life as seen through the eyes of the Fiery Street Poet, as well as the vivid imagery of the Wizened God's Son. Nas refers to himself as the "Hitchcock of Hip Hop since Big-PAC departed", Alfred Hitchcock of course, is the famed film director who pioneered the use of a camera made to move in a way that mimics a person's gaze, forcing viewers to engage in a form of voyeurism. Through Nas's own gaze, we see clearly and vividly the violence, the desolation, and the struggle of the ghetto, in a manner that only two other MC'S (Notorious BIG and Tupac) had the talents to bring to life so descriptively.
A message to those who trapped us up, from federal guys who backed them up. We never will die, we black and tough, lead in your eye, we strapped to bust
Half of us been locked up inside the beast, look at the time we see
Brooklyn to Compton streets, Queens, even the Congo needs dreams
Our bullets and triggers our enemies pullin' on innocent women and children
It wasn't no ghetto killers who mixed up the coke and put guns in our buildings
But I'm not gon' cry, and I'm not gon' stand just watch you die
I'ma pass you a .9, I'ma grab your hand -- come on let's ride
A message to those who killeA message to those who trapped us up, from federal guys who backed them up
We never will die, we black and tough, lead in your eye, we strapped to bust
Half of us been locked up inside the beast, look at the time we see
Brooklyn to Compton streets, Queens, even the Congo needs dreams
Our bullets and triggers our enemies pullin' on innocent women and children
It wasn't no ghetto killers who mixed up the coke and put guns in our buildings
But I'm not gon' cry, and I'm not gon' stand just watch you die
I'ma pass you a .9, I'ma grab your hand -- come on let's ride
A message to those who killed the king, who murdered the Christ
The same regime, what God has built you never can break
What God has loved you never can hate, man makes rules and laws
You just a ruthless dog, your kennel is waiting
You devils will run back into the caves you came from
Whenever that day comes, forty-acres, plantations, see every race won
Sincerely yours, Street's Disciple, revelations"
Here Nas shifts from Street Poet/ Wizened OG to Fiery Warrior/Prophet. Here he is condemning the regime responsible for the conditions of black poverty and drug, murdered Jesus The Christ of Nazereth, and raped the Congo (Africa) of it's riches while slaughtering innocent women and children by the milions. Nas is foreseeing that no matter how much power or wealth is attained, thi regime of evil will in fact end up right back "Into the caves you came from". He is saying that when this day comes, be tomorrow or a lifetime from now, that justice will be served and every race will share in that which belongs to all.
03). Nazereth Savage- "I had bad chicks that blow cum bubbles like bubble gum/Plus they ass lick summer house, be sipping rum"/ This is Nas at his nastiest, a man who at his most savage, desires carnal pleasure and sexual fulfillment. However, there is more to this scenario that meets the eye.
"In my ashtray, smoke signals from the haze
I stick my finger through it, the ring of smoke broke
That symbolize weak guys, pop the strong link off
The infrastructure caves in, amazin'
I ain't have to read The Art of War to slay men"
After his escapade with his bad chicks, Nas lazily sits in a couch smoking, while musing that the cloud of smoke broken compares to his single-handed victory against Jay-Z and Roc-A-Fella. Nas is saying slyly that the entire crew was in fact "weak" and that by popping the lone "strong link off" in Jay-Z that the entire label caved in, leading to Jay-Z's retirement that year in 04 and the break up of the entire Roc-A-Fella label. Nas foresaw all of this in early 2001, when, BEFORE Ether, he threatened to "Rip the FREEWAY, shoot threw MEMPHIS with Money bags/ stop in Philly order cheese steaks and eat BEANS fast/ Bring it back up top and remove the FAKE King of New York". Jay-Z did not heed his warning and instead chose to battle. Nas muses how amazing it was to bring down an entire label and that it proved so easy he didn't even need to read the art of war to prepare for slaughter.
"Nail stabs a hand of the Nasirine
I carried the cross to help you afford that plasma screen
Gave you chumps a path to walk, hold my hand
I'ma guide you like the OG, but don't talk, don't get it confused
'Cause none'a y'all can fit in my shoes
Y'all made of chemicals, artificial actions
God'll forgive you b*stards
Only if you repent to the Nazareth Savage"
This again, is Nas reminiscing on the trials and tribulations he faced in his early career before his supposed "resurgence". His commercial success at the times of It Was Wriiten, I Am, and Nastradamus were seen as "selling out" by some critics and fans. He was metaphorically crucified (as seen in Hate Me Now) for not being what everybody else expected him of being. In the chase for money and riches he bore the brunt of the criticism and flagellations so that now the rappers of today can freely enjoy that which he himself was so criticized for wanting. He is acknowledging his role as teacher and instructor to this newer generation, however giving a warning that he is NOT to be questioned, for these MC's despite their popularity, are not his equal.
"Son's backward flows, they say mine is very scary
Smell fear like a canine that finds buried babies
And all of y'all wear that same aroma
How to blow on your eighth LP, I'll show ya
You're wack *****, face it
In the history of the game, you have no placement
Liquor and weed just massacred their mind, or thee celebrity
Or they couldn't change with time, so now they run they mouth
But when the sun go south, them comes come out
My cavalry woulda been threw ten in your skin
Casualty you don't wanna be, don't want it with me Straight Savage"
This entire verse again, is Nasty Nas at his most vicious. Angry and ready for war, fully prepared to rip you a new one should you displease him. This is considered a subliminal diss at rapper Snoop Doggy Dog, who infamously made mention of the legendary showdown that took place in central Park between members of Deathrow and Tupac's Outlawz entourage and Nas and his Braveheart entourage from Queensbridge. Snoop made negative remarks about Nas, intimating that Tupac punked Nas to his face in front of his whole crew. Here Nas is in turn, questioning Snoops relevancy to Hip Hop, calling him outright "wack" *and supposing that for Snoop to even THINK that Nas would get "punked" publicly by ANYONE that the liquor and weed must've gone to his mind.*
