Albums Nas - The Lost Tapes 2 (Discussion Thread)

[Big Mark]

There was nothing “weird” about Bridging The Gap as a single. I fukking love that song it
Makes me think about my pops (RIP). This is the same man who made I Can a hit single.


Your right about people retroactively hating on SD. It was critically acclaimed when it dropped. The hate started when The Source (who still had relevance around this time) only awarded it a 3.5/5 Mics. Then the floodgates opened on Nas being this terrible beat picker and Salaam Remi somehow being the downfall of the album (when if you check the credits Salaam has some of the best songs on both discs)

Also people don’t know that SD was slated to be a triple album, but Sony wouldn’t let Nas release it as such at the last minute. Thats why songs like Talk Of NY, Serious, Good Morning, and Get Up didn’t make the album because they were from the scrapped third disc

Play On Playa was left off SD too.

 

[MikeStamina]

Meh...it got some nice reviews. But did rap fans like the album? Not really breh. Weak, melodramatic beats and lots of forgettable tracks. I thought a lot of the Salaam tracks were fine, especially the title track (which has a breakbeat and Nas kills it). But to release this album a year after The Black Album was just a bad look to me. A year after Hov gave everyone an album with near flawless production and bangers, we got a double album of slow drums and forgettable beats full of LES and Chucky Thompson tracks....nah.

Jay n Nasir are not intertwined. fukk is you talking about. But you're not the only fan that insist on marrying the two.
SD was fine. I like the album. Hip hop fans always make the mistake of their opinion=masses.
If Nas had all these damn average albums in his catalog, he still wouldn't be here n relevant

 

[Ziggiy]

I think you just lost ya ever loving mind. Comparing Nasir to SD. The title track alone belongs in a hip hop museum of how to MC. FACT!

Mr Z, imma need you to apologize to SD asap for making such an outlandish silly comment

Bro i love SD. I was online defending SD for YEARS while Jay and Cam stans were calling it trash and the worst Double Album of all time. SD doesn’t get the love it deserves for being a TRUE “Grown Man” rap album.

I just like Nasir better. SD is a “mood” album. I gotta be in a certain mood to rock with it. Nasir I just throw on and let it ride. I literally like EVERY song.

Besides that I give it points for the Nasir short film. Love that shyt

 

[Big Mark]

Looking at some notes I had on Nas unreleased material, The Lost Tapes 2 that we are getting is an amazing feat just being released. I've always complained on this board, most of you know this, that the longer Nas waits to put out another Lost Tapes, the more older tracks are going to fall back and off the list. For example, we'd be sitting pretty if shyt happened like this. Imagine this scenario. Nas drops The Lost Tapes 2 in 2003 like he was supposed to, then The Lost Tapes 3 comes out on Def Jam in 2010 like Nas wanted. Flash forward to now with Nas putting out The Lost Tapes 4. As we see, he is still putting out quality tracks. Wow! See below what those projects could have consisted of.

The Lost Tapes 2 comes out in 2003 like it was supposed to with tracks like some of these:

Understanding
Among Kings
Stay Alive
My Worst Enemy Is Me
Wanna Play Rough
Rise and Fall
Seeds of Heaven
You Don't Know Me
My Will
Tales from the Hood
Never Gonna Give it Up
Your Mouth Got You in It
When Thugs Die
High
Curse
True Dialect
Stay Schemin'
Live from the Bridge
Queens nikkas
Crabs in a Barrel
Get Up I am Somebody
White Man's Paper

Then in 2010 we get the first Def Jam version with stuff like this

Colors
Be a ****** Too
Snitch Alibi
The Whole World is a Ghetto
The Fear
Association
Cop Keep Firing
NY Stomp
War
Hope
Proclamation
What It Is
Talk of NY
Good Morning
Something Foul

I'm missing many tracks and these are just the ones that we know about but you get the point. Sadly, lots of these won't see an official release. I wish.

 

[spliz]

Bro i love SD. I was online defending SD for YEARS while Jay and Cam stans were calling it trash and the worst Double Album of all time. SD doesn’t get the love it deserves for being a TRUE “Grown Man” rap album.

I just like Nasir better. SD is a “mood” album. I gotta be in a certain mood to rock with it. Nasir I just throw on and let it ride. I literally like EVERY song.

Besides that I give it points for the Nasir short film. Love that shyt

U wanna know how weird people are when it comes to Nas? If “Nazareth Savage” was unreleased and not on an album nikkas would act like it some of Nas’ best shyt.

 

[NoHalfWay]

NASIR was Nas’ Magna Carter Holy Grail.

Had some ok stuff but you can tell Nas was going through the motions and just throwing some stuff out that might stick. Sounded like he freestyled a lot on it

 

[Ziggiy]

Looking at some notes I had on Nas unreleased material, The Lost Tapes 2 that we are getting is an amazing feat just being released. I've always complained on this board, most of you know this, that the longer Nas waits to put out another Lost Tapes, the more older tracks are going to fall back and off the list. For example, we'd be sitting pretty if shyt happened like this. Imagine this scenario. Nas drops The Lost Tapes 2 in 2003 like he was supposed to, then The Lost Tapes 3 comes out on Def Jam in 2010 like Nas wanted. Flash forward to now with Nas putting out The Lost Tapes 4. As we see, he is still putting out quality tracks. Wow! See below what those projects could have consisted of.

The Lost Tapes 2 comes out in 2003 like it was supposed to with tracks like some of these:

Understanding
Among Kings
Stay Alive
My Worst Enemy Is Me
Wanna Play Rough
Rise and Fall
Seeds of Heaven
You Don't Know Me
My Will
Tales from the Hood
Never Gonna Give it Up
Your Mouth Got You in It
When Thugs Die
High
Curse
True Dialect
Stay Schemin'
Live from the Bridge
Queens nikkas
Crabs in a Barrel
Get Up I am Somebody
White Man's Paper

Then in 2010 we get the first Def Jam version with stuff like this

Colors
Be a ****** Too
Snitch Alibi
The Whole World is a Ghetto
The Fear
Association
Cop Keep Firing
NY Stomp
War
Hope
Proclamation
What It Is
Talk of NY
Good Morning
Something Foul

I'm missing many tracks and these are just the ones that we know about but you get the point. Sadly, lots of these won't see an official release. I wish.

White Man’s Paper is from the HHID sessions. It wouldn’t have been released in 03. Stay Schemin is from I am era so I doubt he’d go back that far for a 2003 edition of LT. Something Foul, Talk Of NY, and Good Morning are from the SD sessions, those are Columbia tracks not Def Jam.

What It Is is Esco Lets Go just on a beat that Nas had nothing to do with. NY Stomp Is The Scientist. Hope (original version) sadly would probably never get released on Lost Tapes because its simply adding a beat to the cappella version that Nas included on HHID.

 

[criminology]

I liked half of SD but it wasn’t a worthy follow up to GS and lost tapes. If he was releasing SD2 this month no one would be as excited.

But uneven as it was, SD >>> HHID imo. HHID is his worst album by far. Nastradamus at least had some high points. HHID was awkward to boring almost the whole way through. Only one or two songs I ever revisit.

 

[Neuromancer]

I must be in the minority that really fukks with the Nasir album. That shyt is classic to me.

I also enjoyed it.

 

[JustCKing]

Play On Playa was left off SD too.

"Not Going Back" is another song that was originally on SD, but was cut and ended up on HHID.

 

[Jack Trippa 3z company ho]

Nah I fukks with Nasir hard. Not a classic though. Solid 4 Mics which is amazing considering the circumstances of its conception.


Nasir is better than both Streets Disciple (which is underrated as well) and Nastradamus so its FAR from his worst album.

Sorry breh, not even close. Nasir is easily the worst album Nas ever put out. SD and Nastradamus had classic tracks, and SD if you remove some filler from disc 2 is an incredible album. You buggin saying Nasir is better than SD

Nastradamus is his 2nd worst album, and I’d take that album all day over the aberration that was Nasir.

Even though I’ll probably never listen to that album again (never said that about any material that Nas ever put out), I still applaud him for thinking out the box and trying new things like he always has. Unfortunately Kanye is nowhere what he used to be, it was rushed, and that was the outcome

 

[Jack Trippa 3z company ho]

It’s hard for me to compare it to either of those albums. I guess since it’s only 7 songs. But I can MOST DEF choose 7 songs off Streets Disciple that blow the NASIR songs out of the water. And he has about 3 or 4 of those on Nastradamus that are leagues above anything on NASIR.

Exactly, that’s such a ridiculous thing to say almost nothing to say back lol

 

[kes929]

Meh...it got some nice reviews. But did rap fans like the album? Not really breh. Weak, melodramatic beats and lots of forgettable tracks. I thought a lot of the Salaam tracks were fine, especially the title track (which has a breakbeat and Nas kills it). But to release this album a year after The Black Album was just a bad look to me. A year after Hov gave everyone an album with near flawless production and bangers, we got a double album of slow drums and forgettable beats full of LES and Chucky Thompson tracks....nah.

Personally in retrospect the black album has about 6-7 songs I can skip east, but yes SD isnt my favorite

 

[kes929]

I liked half of SD but it wasn’t a worthy follow up to GS and lost tapes. If he was releasing SD2 this month no one would be as excited.
Go
But uneven as it was, SD >>> HHID imo. HHID is his worst album by far. Nastradamus at least had some high points. HHID was awkward to boring almost the whole way through. Only one or two songs I ever revisit.

Yea SD Hip Hop is Dead and Nastradamus are the weakest albums in his catalogue. All the other albums are dope to me personally. Sonically hip hop is dead should have went back to primo beats, pete rock, alchemist , those type of producers, because that title alone carried alot of weight and needed to be a smash.

 

[re'up]

Streets Disciple was just a really adult album in concept, and Nas had already began moving on so much from the "Stillmatic" era, that people didn't really catch up. It should have been no surprise, because Gods Son was the same direction. I really liked some tracks of Streets Disciple, but I feel it more now, that I am 30 years plus, than when I was 19, I didn't connect as much from a real place, even if I wanted to.

Fair criticism, the album is bloated, and uneven, suffers from it's length, and some concepts just don't work. As a single album, it would be much better regarded, with the right tracklist. It was moody, dark, and reflective, with also moments of a very relaxed and upbeat Nas, which hadn't really been seen before. I just wasn't living well enough to get the album, spiritually, financially, legally, all of it. Now, tracks like "War", and "Just A Moment" are brilliant, though I always appreciated the latter.

Hip Hop Is Dead came at another very transitional time in my life, and the rap scene, with the content being very similar to SD, in a lot of ways. The mixed presentation, the odd concept tracks, the blend of reflection and Nas having fun, make it a very polarizing album. I really like a few tracks, notably Money Over Bullshyt, You Can't Kill Me (which had Nas back in his DOE style) Let There Be Right, and Hold Down The Block, even Blunt Ashes.