Official Nas Thread

[New Jeruzalem Journalist]

"The Cross" is exactly why a lot of 9th's remixes don't work for me. 9th's beats were dope, but still sounded like blends. Eminem's beat for "The Cross" is slow and skeletal, but Nas brought life to it. The flow, the intensity, and especially the lyrics made the song. The only producer I could see touching that song and elevating the beat is Dre. I could see him adding his own drums, maybe having Mark Batson or Storch on the keys, and adding some hauting strings to it all without it drowning Nas out. I can imagine it sounding like a harder hitting version of Obie's "Oh No".

Breh, there is NOTHING. I repeat. NOTHING, that is good or redeemable about that monstrosity of a beat that Eminem supplied to Nas. I challenge anybody to name a worse choice of production from a major artist in that era such as "The Cross". No hyperbole, that may be the worst beat I've ever heard from an artist I liked.

And I never fukked with 9th Wonder, I hated the fukk out of his early work with those shytty ass drums he'd use on every beat and his Fruity Loops production that so many fans of underground hip-hop thought were so "soulful". But I gotta give it up, his remix of that track was incredible.

 

[JustCKing]

Breh, there is NOTHING. I repeat. NOTHING, that is good or redeemable about that monstrosity of a beat that Eminem supplied to Nas. I challenge anybody to name a worse choice of production from a major artist in that era such as "The Cross". No hyperbole, that may be the worst beat I've ever heard from an artist I liked.

And I
never fukked with 9th Wonder, I hated the fukk out of his early work with those shytty ass drums he'd use on every beat and his Fruity Loops production that so many fans of underground hip-hop thought were so "soulful". But I gotta give it up, his remix of that track was incredible.

I never said that "The Cross" was a good beat. Still, think it's not as bad as it's being made out to be.

I never liked the beat for "Zone Out", so there's that. Possibly the only song that I found to irreedmably bad on on that album. Personally liked "Ridin Broke" better.

It's a lot of beats from that era that are worse. Fabolous's "Ma Be Easy" is one of them and Just Blaze is one of my favorite producers. Jay Z's BP2 has several beats that are worse too i.e. "What They Gonna Do" and Tim is my favorite producer.

 

[DeuceZ]

Honestly i only see the hate for the cross online. When i bought Godson early 2003 I wasn't like "this jawn wack".... shyt hit hard actually, a lil simplistic but put the spotlight on the lyrics.

Zone out on the other hand

 

[SwizzLake]

 

[NV-ME]

^^^ we byke

love that this is coming out as fall approaches. nas fall/winter music >>>*

 

[MustafaSTL]

 

[pez]

threepeat

 

[InstantKlassik]

 

[mson]

 

[mson]

 

[Surreal]

Wow. This looks incredible

 

[Ball]

Bron got Nas on the Father Time Nike commercial

 

[Piff Perkins]

"The Cross" is exactly why a lot of 9th's remixes don't work for me. 9th's beats were dope, but still sounded like blends. Eminem's beat for "The Cross" is slow and skeletal, but Nas brought life to it. The flow, the intensity, and especially the lyrics made the song. The only producer I could see touching that song and elevating the beat is Dre. I could see him adding his own drums, maybe having Mark Batson or Storch on the keys, and adding some hauting strings to it all without it drowning Nas out. I can imagine it sounding like a harder hitting version of Obie's "Oh No".

I agree. As a reference track I like it a lot. As a finished track ehhh. Replacing the Fischer Price drums with Dre Drums, and adding Dre/Storch strings would have been super dramatic and dope.

Nas definitely elevates the beat though. The hook always gives me chills.

 

[spliz]

not gonna lie, i never seen this version/angle/quality

Beautiful. One of the GOAT moments in hip hop history.

 

[spliz]

Nas has always owned his publishing so thats not breaking news.

Owning the IWW Masters is VERY interesting considering he doesn’t really champion that album as much as he does Illmatic and IWW is BELOVED by the new generation of fans and rappers.

It’s funny cause Nas USED to champion that album more than Illmatic.