The_Third_Man
Superstar
speaking of haters, bytch ass Vlad is at it again
Official Nas Thread
- Thread starter Ronald
- Start date
fukk Vlad
Alexander Wiggin
All Star
What I never understood is that reputation about nas' choice of beats.
First of all he got not only a lot of good beats and some are the illest of hip hop history. A lot of rappers got goods beats but few have beats that marked hip hop memory
Second of all he picked beats that suits HIM. He got a style where the music don't have to be a distraction to the vocals. They compliment each other. And sometimes his performance uplift an average beat.
Third of all. How can nas can be accused of sub-par beats when you have Eminem who can't pick an ill instrumental to save his life.
Even a lot of Jay Z songs have the tendency of aging bad. Especially his swizz beatz or neptunes collabs. Vol 2 & 3 were the shyt back in the days but now some of the tracks are
First of all he got not only a lot of good beats and some are the illest of hip hop history. A lot of rappers got goods beats but few have beats that marked hip hop memory
Second of all he picked beats that suits HIM. He got a style where the music don't have to be a distraction to the vocals. They compliment each other. And sometimes his performance uplift an average beat.
Third of all. How can nas can be accused of sub-par beats when you have Eminem who can't pick an ill instrumental to save his life.
Even a lot of Jay Z songs have the tendency of aging bad. Especially his swizz beatz or neptunes collabs. Vol 2 & 3 were the shyt back in the days but now some of the tracks are
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Cant wait for no bass in his voice Vlad to get snuffed
prophecypro
Hollywood North
What I never understood is that reputation about nas' choice of beats.
First of all he got not only a lot a good beats and some are the illest of hip hop history. A lot of rappers got goods beats but few have beats that marked hip hop memory
Second of all he picked beats that suits HIM. He got a style where the music don't have to be a distraction to the vocals. They compliment each other. And sometimes his performance uplift an average beat.
Third of all. How can nas can be accused of sub-par beats when you have Eminem who can't pick an ill instrumental to save his life.
Even Jay Z ils songs have the tendency of aging bad. Specialy his swizz beatz or neptunes collabs. Vol 2 & 3 were the shyt back in the days but now some of the tracks are
You know what, that shyt started with that fukking 9th Wonder God's Stepson album. Before that I didnt hear people go on about his beat selection. If anything it was his choice in subject matter and persona (Escobar) that had people mad. Even then during the Esco era you still had street/non-back pack fans and fringe commercial heads who fukked with Nas heavy for songs like Hate Me Now and If I Ruled the World.
And we all know the goodwill and support he got during the Stillmatic-Lost Tapes-God Son era.
Its when 9th release that album at the same time he was gaining recognition and drawing comparisons to Pete Rock and Priemier and was like "This is the stuff I wanna hear Nas on...it just so happens to be my stuff
". You couple that with the idea that Jay, Nas' closest peer/rival rebounds from the beef with The Black Album which was sold on being his last album with star producers and he actually gets 9th on there and people wanna MCs with all top producers and that was the way to go in the mid 2000s (The Game being the best example of that). All of a sudden Nas drops Streets Disciple which pretty much follows the same production formula as Stillmatic/God Son and people are like "Oh this is boring, where are the club songs, where's Heatmakerz and Kanye
" and I think that kinda forced him into a mode of second guessing his direction when if anything he was in a lane that worked.I think thats why Hip Hop is Dead sounds so half baked cause half of it is big name producers and then the other half doing what he wants. If anything that's the one album I can point to and say okay I can understand having an issue here cause its half great beats and half lazy beats with songs that dont fit the theme. Untitled is a little bit like that but I feel like he keeps on theme where its not as much of an issue and it sounds a bit more soulful with Toomp, Remi and Ronson's stuff.
He definetly fixed that with Life is Good but that was done by having more Salaam Remi than ever and No ID basically giving beats that people have heard Nas on before but just the stuff we want.
It kills me when people say Nas and Cole have beat choices cause there's still some soul samples in them and sound like contemporary pure Hip Hop beats so how can they be trash? Cole's got other issues which I think seperate him from Nas but like you said when you compare them to the hollow shyt Eminem goes on or the experimental shyt post-90s Kast that say Andre or Big Boi sometimes go on or the not aged so well 2000s South beats its not even an issue
WavyHair ChippedTeeth
All Star
What I never understood is that reputation about nas' choice of beats.
First of all he got not only a lot a good beats and some are the illest of hip hop history. A lot of rappers got goods beats but few have beats that marked hip hop memory
Second of all he picked beats that suits HIM. He got a style where the music don't have to be a distraction to the vocals. They compliment each other. And sometimes his performance uplift an average beat.
Third of all. How can nas can be accused of sub-par beats when you have Eminem who can't pick an ill instrumental to save his life.
Even Jay Z ils songs have the tendency of aging bad. Specialy his swizz beatz or neptunes collabs. Vol 2 & 3 were the shyt back in the days but now some of the tracks are
Nothing wrong with this statement.
Piff Perkins
Veteran
I'd argue people been complaining about Nas' beat selections long before 9th Wonder. Hip hop purists didn't fukk with IWW's mainstream glossier sound. I Am had some questionable beats. Nastradamus...let's not even mention it...Dame Grease had so many wack beats on albums at that time lol. Stillmatic had good beats although in comparison to Blueprint the quality didn't compare. You can go on and on. Life Is Good has Summer On Smash which is terrible, Reach Out which a million people have rapped over/is outdated.
My view has been that Nas is one of the best rappers ever if not the best. For most of his career he had pretty big album budgets, and every producer wanted to work with him. So I feel like he missed out on working with better producers or rapping over better beats due to...I dunno. I'm not a big 9th Wonder fan anymore but yo, they should have worked together. They're like two peas in a pod, demeanor wise and ideologically.
He should work with Alchemist again. Q-Tip is still making dope beats. Terrace Martin would go perfectly with Nas. Just Blaze still wants to work with him. Jake One. Willie B. Black Metaphor. I'd love to see another Boi1na collab. The list goes on.
My view has been that Nas is one of the best rappers ever if not the best. For most of his career he had pretty big album budgets, and every producer wanted to work with him. So I feel like he missed out on working with better producers or rapping over better beats due to...I dunno. I'm not a big 9th Wonder fan anymore but yo, they should have worked together. They're like two peas in a pod, demeanor wise and ideologically.
He should work with Alchemist again. Q-Tip is still making dope beats. Terrace Martin would go perfectly with Nas. Just Blaze still wants to work with him. Jake One. Willie B. Black Metaphor. I'd love to see another Boi1na collab. The list goes on.
You could literally nitpick anyone's discography like this, especially when its as extensive as Nas's. Are we going to discuss the duds on Jay's Vol 1-3, BP2, BP3, Kingdom Come, MCHG? We going to act like "Justify My Thug," "Jigga My nikka," and "Tom Ford" are beyond reproach? What about the two (not one, but TWO!) wack-ass collab albums with R Kelly that people try to pretend never happened (filled with Trackmasters production, no less). Not to shyt on Jay, but over the course of a dozen albums, there's going to be a lot of shyt you simply don't rock with, no matter how much you like the artist.
Nas's last album had great production from Justice League, No ID, Buckwild, Boi1da, 40... But it doesn't count because you don't like "Summer On Smash?"
If y'all don't get outta here with these tired ass narratives.
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Ukbrotha
Superstar
Anthony Joshua ring walked to Hate me now last night. 
prophecypro
Hollywood North
Anthony Joshua ring walked to Hate me now last night.
Yeah Peeped that, won the fight too
prophecypro
Hollywood North
See,I can understand and agree questioning why he leaves these producers and artist on the table with the budget he has but I hate that people automatically translate that into him picking the WORST beats and that he has awful beats.
Cause to me post-God Son, I can understand him having a chemistry and comfort with Salaam and I think it made for him writing more personally about himself for the first time in a minute and that to me is an interesting Nas vs the personas he took on in the Esco years.
I hated that people started downing Salaam for that when in reality hes a pretty good producer which people are only just seeing now with his other work and he fed Nas some decent street singles in the 00's
You know what, that shyt started with that fukking 9th Wonder God's Stepson album. Before that I didnt hear people go on about his beat selection. If anything it was his choice in subject matter and persona (Escobar) that had people mad. Even then during the Esco era you still had street/non-back pack fans and fringe commercial heads who fukked with Nas heavy for songs like Hate Me Now and If I Ruled the World.
And we all know the goodwill and support he got during the Stillmatic-Lost Tapes-God Son era.
Its when 9th release that album at the same time he was gaining recognition and drawing comparisons to Pete Rock and Priemier and was like "This is the stuff I wanna hear Nas on...it just so happens to be my stuff
I don't know how much it plays into the criticism, but 9th was definitely trying to boost his standing with the Okayplayer crowd at the expense of trolling Nas. I prefer the retail version of Godson by leaps and bounds.
But Nas's moves have always been viewed with more scrunity than his peers. Like I mentioned up top, Jay dropped two garbage albums with R Kelly that no one ever talks about. If Nas did the same he would never hear the end of it. The thing is, Jay has had the benefit of industry guys championing his successes over the years. Don't get me wrong, Nas gets love from his peers and the artists that he's influenced, but he doesn't have an industry equivalent to Dream Hampton, Elliott Wilson, Questlove, Clark Kent, Guru, etc. Nas's biggest cheerleaders are in academia: Micheal Eric Dyson, Marc Lamont Hill (he's more of a journalist, but sort of falls into that black intellectual category), etc. And they seem to be infatuated with his debut more than anything. I mean, the fact that Nas has like seven platinum albums and a bunch of gold, and people still nitpick his decisions to this degree is kind of ridiculous. Dude is one of the most successful rappers ever.