Poll: What Was Nas' Best Year?

[Wacky D]

Oh ok, i see where your head is at. My bad for engaging.

future is more popular than both of them.

if we want to go by your drake/Kendrick logic, then neither jay nor nas were number 1 or 2. those spots would go to nelly & Eminem.

so where is YOUR head at?

 

[Zero]

It's ill when MCs used to be on cruddy shyt
Took home ready to die, listened, studied shyt
Now they on some money shyt

Successful out the blue

 

[mastermind]

future is more popular than both of them.

 

[MoneyBags]

2001. He bodied EVERYTHING that year ending it out with Stillmatic. His greatest verse (IMO) was constructed that year (2nd verse off Every Ghetto).

 

[SchrodingersStrapped!]

His inception....

 

[JustCKing]

but youre admitting that jay was still more popular. regardless of the gap narrowing.

8 mile is just a soundtrack and he obviously has a long history with dr dre.
jagged edge was yet another so so def collabo.

none of these collabs were a huge deal either.

8 Mile had nothing to do with Dre other than Em being Dre's artist. Which is pretty irrelevant considering he had beef with 50, which by extension was also a Dre artist.

The song he did woth J. Lo was a huge deal. So was the "Pledge" remix with Ja.

 

[BmoreGorilla]

02 nas

02 Nas was a beast on the mic. He was at his peak as an artist

 

[One]

That was Stoute's statement and it wasn't stated as a good thing. Pac was not confined to Southern California especially not in '93.

Nas's best year wasn't '94. Illmatic, as iconic as it is now, was slept on in '94. Nas had mich more going for him in 2002, 1996, and arguably 1999 for 1994 to be his BEST year. Illmatic has become the gift and the curse of his career. It is a gift because of it's greatness. It is a curse because that album has become possibly bigger than him. Everything he's done since has become overshadowed by that one album and he's written better songs than what's on that album. Difference is that album only had 9 songs (8 new ones considering "Halftime" was 2 years old) free of the filler that plagues even the best of albums. Saying Nas's best year was '94 is like saying Jay's best year was '96. This isn't a case like Snoop where he saw his best and biggest album drop in '93 and propel him into being one of th biggest artists in Hip Hop and possibly music at the time.

So according to you, you can put out an album that gets bigger than you, that's also free of filler just as you said, but even if it becomes your most legendary well known work and solidified as an absolute masterpiece, none of this is indicative of it being your best year and even though it remains your most legendary album it's not like snoops doggystyle and it didn't propel Nas into one of the biggest artist in Hip-Hop at the time?

I'm done here.

 

[prophecypro]

This thread got me thinking though, its scary how much young dudes especially on twitter seem to have completely forgotten how ominipresent and dope Nas was during certain years. Like a lot of people here have made great cases for 2002 and the 12 month run (Dec 01-Dec 02) he had and some people dont even realize it.

 

[prophecypro]

So according to you, you can put out an album that gets bigger than you, that's also free of filler just as you said, but even if it becomes your most legendary well known work and solidified as an absolute masterpiece, none of this is indicative of it being your best year and even though it remains your most legendary album it's not like snoops doggystyle and it didn't propel Nas into one of the biggest artist in Hip-Hop at the time?

I'm done here.

I think he was trying to make the case for other things going on than just one album which was happening for him in 96 and 02.

 

[JustCKing]

Is it really fair to consider all of Stillmatic for 2002? Seems like 2002 is getting a boost based on Nas dropping albums in December in 2001 and 2002.

Stillmatic carried over into '02 especially with limited editions of that album dropping in '02 that had a bonus disc of Lost Tapes snippets. Then there was the "One Mic" video. Even when you remove Stillmatic from the picture, there's still Lost Tapes and God's Son. Then you have the features, the buzz of him signing to Nurder Inc, and him winning the battle.

 

[JustCKing]

So according to you, you can put out an album that gets bigger than you, that's also free of filler just as you said, but even if it becomes your most legendary well known work and solidified as an absolute masterpiece, none of this is indicative of it being your best year and even though it remains your most legendary album it's not like snoops doggystyle and it didn't propel Nas into one of the biggest artist in Hip-Hop at the time?

I'm done here.

The keyword is becomes. It wasn't that in 1994 and that was my point. Nas's 1994 is noteworthy in retrospect. When Illmatic dropped, he was overlooked as was the album. That album got a coveted 5 mics in The Source, but Biggie took home both album of the year and lyricist of the year for an album that got 4.5 mics. Illmatic grew as Nas got bigger to become the mythical albun that it is now.

And Illmatic by no means propelled Nas's career the way Doggystyle did for Snoop. Doggystyle was that album out the gate. It was breaking and setting records commercially. It remains Snoop's best selling album, which also happens to be his best effort. Illmatic did not break and set records. It isn't Nas's best seller. It sold over time. It may be Nas's best album, but that hardly equates to 1994 being his best year.

 

[mobbinfms]

Nas's 1994 is noteworthy in retrospect.

Isn't that the whole point of the thread?

 

[JustCKing]

Isn't that the whole point of the thread?

No. Noteworthy =/= best.

 

[Wacky D]

I'm talking within the culture.

the same way you have jay & nas over Eminem & nelly.

you must be one of those brainwashed cats. keep posting your smilies.