Brian O'Conner
All Star
I really havn't commented on LIG and It took me a while to warm up to it. But after playing this non stop for the past few weeks I can confidantly say it is a classic album. It is just so well put together and probably the most balanced album Nas has ever came out with. Its also his most personal, we got to see a side of Nas that he rarely shows.
Looking back i am really happy with how Def Jam has treated Nas as a veteran artist and they never really forced him to put radio songs on his albums. As an outsider looking in it feels like he had complete creative control to do what he felt and probably threw in 1 or 2 radio friendly songs to appease the label but overall his albums on def jam have been great
Hip Hop is Dead
Untitled/N*****
Distant Relatives
Life is Good
Looking at these 4 albums seperatley each had an whole different vibe to them. Each with its own direction and subject matter. Unlike most mainstream artist these days that is just a grab bag of club songs and street anthems using the same hot for the year R&B singer on the hook.
Its sad and inspiring at the same time that a 20 year vet like Nas is one of the few artist out there that can maintain their individuality and still sell records. Looking at this stellar run on def jam I feel like we were cheated on his earlier years. Illmatic and IWW were of course classic but after that it seems like the label was trying to force him to fit in whatever was popping. Nas is obviously at his best when you let him do his thing and be creative.
HHID is a very dope album to me. A lot of dope concepts like who killed it and some of his best storytelling tracks like you cant kill me.He created a controversy with the industry and looking back on it he was right. N**** is one of my favorite hip hop albums period. He dropped so much knowledge on there without being overly corny and the first rapper in a long time to make a social statement like that. DR i thought was classic. i am a big damien marley fan and it was a hard thing to pull off. That album just feels good with the live instruments and a very positive album in a market where all the music is subconciously very negative.
Life is Good sealed the deal on the GOAT conversation as far as Im concerned. grand opening grand closing. At this point he is just putting so much distance between himself and other top artist who are stuck trying to recreate the past. Nas continues to put hip hop on his back (bringing back large proffessor, sampling old school classics), pushing the genre into new directions while not losing a step lyricaly. Even looking at his features the past year he is just killing MCs on a track. Nas is pushing 40 and sounding better than the young boys he rhymes with.
One of my fav Nas lines is "They thought I'll make another "Illmatic"
But it's always forward I'm moving
Never backwards stupid here's another classic "
i think that says it all. Sorry for the long rant but in an era where most labels are known for fukking over their artist im really glad def jam treated his projects so well. We got some great music out of it
Looking back i am really happy with how Def Jam has treated Nas as a veteran artist and they never really forced him to put radio songs on his albums. As an outsider looking in it feels like he had complete creative control to do what he felt and probably threw in 1 or 2 radio friendly songs to appease the label but overall his albums on def jam have been great
Hip Hop is Dead
Untitled/N*****
Distant Relatives
Life is Good
Looking at these 4 albums seperatley each had an whole different vibe to them. Each with its own direction and subject matter. Unlike most mainstream artist these days that is just a grab bag of club songs and street anthems using the same hot for the year R&B singer on the hook.
Its sad and inspiring at the same time that a 20 year vet like Nas is one of the few artist out there that can maintain their individuality and still sell records. Looking at this stellar run on def jam I feel like we were cheated on his earlier years. Illmatic and IWW were of course classic but after that it seems like the label was trying to force him to fit in whatever was popping. Nas is obviously at his best when you let him do his thing and be creative.
HHID is a very dope album to me. A lot of dope concepts like who killed it and some of his best storytelling tracks like you cant kill me.He created a controversy with the industry and looking back on it he was right. N**** is one of my favorite hip hop albums period. He dropped so much knowledge on there without being overly corny and the first rapper in a long time to make a social statement like that. DR i thought was classic. i am a big damien marley fan and it was a hard thing to pull off. That album just feels good with the live instruments and a very positive album in a market where all the music is subconciously very negative.
Life is Good sealed the deal on the GOAT conversation as far as Im concerned. grand opening grand closing. At this point he is just putting so much distance between himself and other top artist who are stuck trying to recreate the past. Nas continues to put hip hop on his back (bringing back large proffessor, sampling old school classics), pushing the genre into new directions while not losing a step lyricaly. Even looking at his features the past year he is just killing MCs on a track. Nas is pushing 40 and sounding better than the young boys he rhymes with.
One of my fav Nas lines is "They thought I'll make another "Illmatic"
But it's always forward I'm moving
Never backwards stupid here's another classic "
i think that says it all. Sorry for the long rant but in an era where most labels are known for fukking over their artist im really glad def jam treated his projects so well. We got some great music out of it
