Official Nas Thread

[yesiambowling]

In general, majority of the artists you named make more commercially accessible music - or they lead off with more commercially accessible singles. Its not just their core fans who are streaming their music, its people who heard a song on a curated playlist, or some other medium and then they want to circle back to it. Like I said, core Nas fans are good to show up for 20-30k ish in sales, maybe 35..and thats not even “true sales”. Like be forreal about this shyt, how many streams is a sale? Twitter street team really think Nas fans gonna be in bed streaming songs with the phone on mute, then have the tablet open in the other room streaming too all night to push sales. nikkas just want to listen to and enjoy the music in an organic way

I don't have access to this data but if its out there someone look up the most streamed songs from the Hit Boy series and tell me Spicy, EPMD and Nobody aren't all in the top 5, and tell me that nothing from Magic besides the Asap record is up there? shyt that is just Nas bars and Nas doing the hook is not the mass appeal sound that drives streams. So why not bring in a Weeknd, or a Snoh Aalegra/Jhene Aiko type to sing a hook for you? Why not collab with a Kendrick? Would that not be the #1 topic on every rap podcasat?

I don't think Nas is interested in sales like that. He released KD3 as a full solo experience and did minimal promo for it. Seems like he just wants the quality of the record to speak for itself and he won't let any sort of forced feature bring it down, regardless of what it means for the streaming numbers.

 

[Ziggiy]

She never said he was depressed but he damn sure ain’t pleased with it. Why is that so hard to comprehend? Y’all talk about her but yet take things personal as well. if you do your part then great. But don’t act like what she is saying don’t have validation bc it does. One would think the real ones would be bigger the way this forum carries on for days about nothing. The real
ones spend more days discussing producers he should work with on an album not released yet than streaming his albums already released on streaming platforms.

By the way Nas releases bc he does has obligations to his own label/business. Why would he spend money on promo to produce the same results? By the way those big artists cost money as well. That’s smart business 101. But anyway I’m wasting my time here.

As a fan and lifelong supporter I feel Nas is and has always been aware of what it takes to “play the game” and sell records. If Nas wanted to partner with a cell phone company and/or Hennesey and have them purchase one million units of the new album so that he’s Platinum first week he could easily do so. If he wanted to partner with a streaming service for one week of exclusivity so that he could brag about how many new subscriptions said streamer got, he could do so. If he wanted to do a traditional promo run with interviews across print, television, and radio. He could do that.

But Nas CHOOSES not to do that so I always assumed he was cool with his sales being based on the purity of the fanbase. I mean numbers don’t lie, he did a traditional promo run for KD1 and it was number 5 on the charts. He did less promo, but still a few nationwide interviews and a few international interviews and came number 3 on the charts. There’s video of him celebrating and jumping head first in a pool after learning he was number 1 on iTunes. Magic came with no promo and only two IG posts and it did what it did but that could be chalked up to it releasing on Christmas week. KD3 came with three weeks notice and little promo besides the interview with Trevor Noah.

None of these things matter to me PERSONALLY. I’m going to buy Nas albums and Merch every time he drops. He’s guaranteed money out of my pocket until the end of time. I guess I just always thought that Nas wanted to appeal DIRECTLY to his fans and forgo all the industry politics. Because the industry politics are what moves the units. Nas has never complained about sales and has rapped about how much he hates doing interviews because they always bring up shyt that has nothing to do with the music. But when he DOES go the extra mile he seems to get the extra support.

 

[waynep]

The fact y’all think Nas don’t care about his album sells is !

As much time some of y’all spend on this site running the numbers up day after day about which producer he should work with one would think y’all would spend the same amount of time streaming his albums the week of and weeks after the drop.

Nas shouldn’t have to depend on popular features or interviews for streams.

After this hip hop 50 yr of events. He will then concentrate on other things.

Nas puts his love, time and money into these projects. Why wouldn’t he want to see the best results from it?

Amongst all the madness in here right now this made me sad reading that after Hip-Hop 50th year he's focusing on other things. I got spoiled with the steady release of albums the past 4-5 years lol this feels like he's turning 50 and after this will be semi retired going forward. I think he's going to give us all he's got this upcoming album.

 

[spliz]

As a fan and lifelong supporter I feel Nas is and has always been aware of what it takes to “play the game” and sell records. If Nas wanted to partner with a cell phone company and/or Hennesey and have them purchase one million units of the new album so that he’s Platinum first week he could easily do so. If he wanted to partner with a streaming service for one week of exclusivity so that he could brag about how many new subscriptions said streamer got, he could do so. If he wanted to do a traditional promo run with interviews across print, television, and radio. He could do that.

But Nas CHOOSES not to do that so I always assumed he was cool with his sales being based on the purity of the fanbase. I mean numbers don’t lie, he did a traditional promo run for KD1 and it was number 5 on the charts. He did less promo, but still a few nationwide interviews and a few international interviews and came number 3 on the charts. There’s video of him celebrating and jumping head first in a pool after learning he was number 1 on iTunes. Magic came with no promo and only two IG posts and it did what it did but that could be chalked up to it releasing on Christmas week. KD3 came with three weeks notice and little promo besides the interview with Trevor Noah.

None of these things matter to me PERSONALLY. I’m going to buy Nas albums and Merch every time he drops. He’s guaranteed money out of pocket until the end of time. I guess I just always thought that Nas wanted to appeal DIRECTLY to his fans and forgo all the industry politics. Because the industry politics are what moves the units. Nas has never complained about sales and has rapped about how much he hates doing interviews because they always bring up shyt that has nothing to do with the music. But when he DOES go the extra mile he seems to get the extra support.

Ur guess is more than likely right. This goofy nikka in here insulting people talking about they don’t know the streaming game meanwhile I been streaming music since the fukking Zune was out. If Nas WANTED shyt to be one way. He would make it that way. U don’t have a release cycle the way Nas does on an independent label if u want high streams. It literally is counterproductive and makes no sense. So imo. Ur assumption is right.

 

[kes929]

“Let the music diffuse all the tension” Nas - Made you look.

 

[kes929]

Amongst all the madness in here right now this made me sad reading that after Hip-Hop 50th year he's focusing on other things. I got spoiled with the steady release of albums the past 4-5 years lol this feels like he's turning 50 and after this will be semi retired going forward. I think he's going to give us all he's got this upcoming album.

5 albums in 3 years and all quality is crazyy. The game won’t be the same for me when Nas retires. I’m riding this out with him.

 

[Alexander Wiggin]

5 albums in 3 years and all quality is crazyy. The game won’t be the same for me when Nas retires. I’m riding this out with him.

Honestly if he don't drop after the incoming joint I wouldnt mind because what he gave us with the hit boy run was already far more that what I expected. To be honest after Nasir I was almost advocating for him to retire thinking he lost it because as much as they're was always something to say about nas' production, the rapping and the lyrics were always on point. But on Nasir he was off, uninspired and I though maybe after 6 year hiatus and going into different things on the business tip his heart wasn't in it anymore. But then hit boy came in the picture and he prove me wrong. So I'm always in tune for new music but if he want to step back after this I won't be mad. It's well deserved

 

[waynep]

5 albums in 3 years and all quality is crazyy. The game won’t be the same for me when Nas retires. I’m riding this out with him.

Yea man reading that makes me feel like the end is near.

 

[Piff Perkins]

Also to add to this. Nas is INDEPENDENT. lol.

Which means he's got to do more direct legwork. A label is gonna get their artists on the Rap Caviar playlist when a new album drops, send them to NY or LA for promo, etc. It's harder for an independent artist but we've already seen Nas has so much respect and Mass Appeal is so effective that he's gotten similar looks without a label. How many other independent rappers get their shyt on an NBA promo, like Nas has? None that I know of.

Even Beyonce and Drake haven't done surprise album drops with their last albums. Kendrick basically said "my album is coming out in a month," dropped a song and that was that. Beyonce did the same. Meanwhile, Drake has been on tour for a couple weeks giving nightly updates on the status; last week he said it was done mixing. Point being, we're seeing the big dogs plot out elaborate album release rollouts. They don't have to do promo and still do 300k+ first week. Nas, like most artists, isn't on that level in 2023. So...a surprise release with no immediate promo probably isn't a good idea fam. Hell we can take the "probably" out since they've tried this a couple times and it didn't work. Maybe it's time to switch that shyt up? The frustrating thing is they saw how well KD2 did and said oh yea that? We're not doing that again lol. Huge features, announced a week in advance, not the best promo run but at least they did some shyt. Only major thing I felt bad about was not dropping a video alongside the album announcement, to pool streams. 56k first week, Pretty damn good! And since then 'it's been 22k and 29k, with weird rollouts and limited or no features.

 

[RoseWooD]

I know It's to be expected on a message forum and the internet. But you clowns got to be some of the lamest nikkas of all timejust trying to find information and I can't even power scroll and power swipe fast enough through this bullshyt the last 15 pages SCUST How the fukk you grown ass men grow up to be this corny. The big bunion smmfh

 

[Ziggiy]

5 albums in 3 years and all quality is crazyy. The game won’t be the same for me when Nas retires. I’m riding this out with him.

Nas ain’t retiring. He’s said himself he’ll be rapping until he’s 80. He might take a break. He might go back to an album every two years schedule. He might do business stuff and drop some singles here and there like in the era after Life Is Good. But he’ll NEVER stop rapping. Its in his blood.

Also don’t forget we still have the 50th Anniversary EP’s from DJ Mustard, Mike Will Made It, and Hit Boy. Nas will more than likely make an appearance on all of those projects. PLUS he’s still in demand for features

 

[Ziggiy]

With all the negativity going back and forth I actually forgot in my lengthy post to give props to an aspect of Nas marketing for KD3 that I think he knocked out of the park

Signing up your phone number to get the KD3 info early and have access to exclusive merch was an act of GENIUS. It reminded me of the old school methods back in the 90’s where you could call one of those toll free numbers and listen to the album snippets before it was released. It was cool getting the tracklisting and back cover art through text. And then the info regarding the MSG concert. THAT in my opinion was some expert marketing and rewarded fans for being engaged.

@Life is Good tell Nas and the marketing team they did an EXCELLENT job with that. For as much “criticism” as Nas gets for not marketing and promoting I feel an equal amount of credit should be due when he does something innovative and that was very cool.



Also I will say further that I understand the impulse of the frustration. Billboard seems to be directly punishing artists who DON’T push their fans towards streaming and thats absolute horsehit. The fact billboard doesn’t count sales from artists websites is fukking ABHORRENT. Especially for older artists whose fanbase prefers supporting their favorite artists by going directly to the “source” as it were. This all started when Prince began appealing directly to his fans to purchase music off of his website in the 90’s. It always felt like buying from the site somehow surpassed the industry red tape and put more money in the artist’s pocket than buying from a third party, and now the labels have partnered with the streamers to effectively kneecap chart position because of it. For YEARS i’d purchase multiple copies of Nas albums from his website (A few digital for friends, physical CD for myself) as well as through iTunes because that was helping not only to put money DIRECTLY in his pocket but helping towards his billboard placement. This has literally been my strategy since 2018, now if I follow that same strategy going forward it won’t count. If I were a recording artist I would be absolutely PISSED and if Iwere an artist of Nas stature whose fanbase skews older and the pure sales are often higher than the average artist, i’d be INCENSED.

So I DO get the anger and I DO understand why Nasoutlet has been pushing the fans towards streaming and educating everyone on the importance of it. It’s just fukked up that long time fans have to bare the brunt of the industry’s fukkery. And that artists like Nas get caught in the crossfire. I know its a new dawn on music consumption but NO artist should be penalized just because their fans would rather PURCHASE with their hard earned money from an artist website instead of stream from a platform.

 

[Soymuscle Mike]

Yo @spliz is the goat having Knight and his friends run the marketing team?

I've never in my 37year life seen a marketing campaign resort to solely calling out the hardcore fans to "stream more".

Nas will empty out his socials, drop a 17 track album with no features pretty much unannounced, spend multiple parts of said album bragging about how he's not trying to compete with young rappers or care about BS streaming figures, talk about how his core fanbase grew up on him and have kids nown and now we, who sell out merch and concert tickets, get called out for not streaming enough?

 

[Ukbrotha]

I saw Transformers rise of the beasts yesterday and it was nice to hear Represent played in the movie.

 

[ADP]

Yo @spliz is the goat having Knight and his friends run the marketing team?

I've never in my 37year life seen a marketing campaign resort to solely calling out the hardcore fans to "stream more".

Nas will empty out his socials, drop a 17 track album with no features pretty much unannounced, spend multiple parts of said album bragging about how he's not trying to compete with young rappers or care about BS streaming figures, talk about how his core fanbase grew up on him and have kids nown and now we, who sell out merch and concert tickets, get called out for not streaming enough?

Long story short there are people who are paid to drive engagement and people who love the artist's work and pay for it

I really doubt that Nas is familiar with these tactics when the message in his music is rather the opposite of sheep behaviour

One of the most ridiculous things I've seen... "you're not good enough fans !!!"

"We" had a huge contribution to bringing Nas to where he is today, he'll even the Alchemist wars show that we are hugely interested in his music but but but streaming.

I'll go stream Jarreau of rap then