mailerloha.blogg.se - Nas the lost tapes 2

Nas’s flows are still varied and tight, his rhyme patterns gobsmacking and his storytelling as evocative as ever. While there are flaws with this album, there aren’t many major red flags. Album closer 'Beautiful Life' truly is a beautiful experience, with a beautiful instrumental by No I.D., deeply personal bars from Nas, talking about his ex-wife Kelis keeping their son away from him and the whole custody battle he had to go through to access his child. 'Queensbridge Politics' starts with one of the corniest bars on the album: "Talking to this cutie on facetime/ Trying to figure out if she gon' give me that face time" before we transition into a Prodigy tribute, with Nas lamenting the Mobb Deep member's death and the hatred that still exists in Queensbridge even after the death of such an icon. On this album, the song does not shine as much as the up-tempo, staccato experience of 'Jarreau of Rap' or the bouncy, Pharrell Williams-produced 'Vernon Family', but had it been on Nasir, it would have been a standout - such is the lack of quality on that album. Kanye West-produced 'You Mean The World To Me' is one of the few storytelling songs that has a real purpose. tribute on the chorus, flipping what used to be a brag rap about how many guns Biggie had, into an anti-gun anthem. The first verse on 'It Never Ends' is so smooth it's hypnotising, coupled with a B.I.G. The final four songs on the album make up a sequence that can match any on any hip-hop album ever.

In his career, Nas has been said to come off as that very 'holier-than-thou' figure he is mocking here. 'Who Are You' is a rather ironic track, talking about a college-educated man trying to better his people and telling them to stop selling drugs, with our narrator Nas responding with "Who are you, tryna tell me who I am?". Woke Nas makes a strong appearance on this project, with songs like 'War Against Love' flexing his worldview to its fullest.

Album Review: King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard - Infest The Rats' Nest.

Fresher Sounds – The best new music – 13/08/19.

The only real storytelling song that has an identifiable message, and stays with the story throughout, is 'Queens Wolf' - a gritty, metaphor-laced street tale. 'Tanasia' is a stereotype-filled corny tale of an Asian woman Nas seems to take a fancy to and achieves little beyond making listeners feel awkward. 'Royalty' starts out as a story, with Nas' first verse, of a man having phone sex and cheating on his partner, but then Nas gives up and just starts feeding us some grimy street bars. The issue with this album is that he seems to be telling stories for no reason other than to tell a story. One of Nas’ best assets is his ability to paint a picture. With legendary producers on every track, the consistency in instrumental quality should come as no surprise Pharrel Williams, Statik Selektah, No I.D., Swizz Beatz, RZA and more make appearances.

Instrumentation tends to be sparser, giving Nas the space he needs to dazzle with flows and lyricism. The production on this project is far more fitting for Nas than what was shown on Nasir. Coming out a year after Stillmatic, just as The Lost Tapes 2 has been released a year after Nasir, the album was touted to be Nas' mainstream comeback. The original Lost Tapes was a compilation album of a bunch of unreleased Nas tracks that were recorded between his 1999 album I Am. A disappointing Kanye West-produced record later, and fans were still left wanting.Ī year later, along comes The Lost Tapes 2. When DJ Khaled came out with ‘Nas Album Done’ on his 2016 release Major Key, a track that showed Nas at his best, fans of hip hop rejoiced and began their wait for some nasty Nas excellence. Getting two Nas albums in the space of a year is a strange proposition for fans of the New York rapper, who have been used to waiting for four or five years between releases. After the anticlimax of Nasir, Nas finally delivers the goods on his latest release.