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Underground > Radio & Music >

This ain't rapping...this is street hop

21:10 / 15.10.07

I don't think we've had one of these before? I have long been down on Nas, for fairly cliched reasons (i.e., he dropped my all-time favourite rap album, Illmatic, and then followed it up with dud after dud, etc.)

But last week, there were all these posters up announcing him playing a Sydney show, and I couldn't pretend not to be excited about it, so I put all my favourite post-Illmatic Nas songs on a playlist and started listening to it pretty much constantly. And holy shit! When you cut out all the what-were-you-thinking album tracks, he has one of the best back catalogues of the last ten years. I mean, Get Down? Made U Look? Affirmative Action?

I realise it is kind of ridiculously hubristic to say 'I have realised Nas is actually okay, now let's talk about him'. Anyway, I still think If I Ruled The World is garbage.

If nobody responds to this I am just going to start dropping daily 500 word posts about tracks I love until everyone gives in and cops his albums.

10:22 / 16.10.07

It's tempting not to respond just so we get those posts.

My all time favourite, non-Illmatic track is probably "Doo Rags" off of "The Lost Tapes" album. I love this record, it seems to do something that only Hip Hop can do. It starts with a mundane item, an accessory for hair fashion, but flips this into a meditation on memory and ageing, black pride and history (The styles come from prison/they used potatoes makin liquor/ just to prove we some creative niggaz)- lyrically, he isn't really hugely detailed, but it's just those little fragments, the range of ideas that he touches on in that song, whole worlds of associations if you take the time to figure out what he's talking about. It's probably one of the simplest Nas productions ever also - just a piano loop, but it's really beautiful and fits the wistful mood of the song perfectly. The fact he can do incredibly introspective stuff like this, and still put out straight up bangers proves his talent to me.

21:02 / 17.10.07

Well, I would have been pretty disappointed if I didn't at least get a reply from you. When I get home tonight I will try to put up a post about 'Get Down'.

One of the things I like most about his best stuff is it makes perfect work out music, 'cause it's mostly all either awesome gangster storytelling or inspirational you-can-do-it stuff.

misterdomino.org

21:52 / 17.10.07

There is so much good stuff goin on with hip hop right now that trying to redeem Nas seems like a waste to me. New aesop rock, new prefuse 73...

02:57 / 18.10.07

Is that a joke? I seriously can't tell.

06:55 / 18.10.07

Nas doesn't need "redeeming". His back catalogue speaks for itself, in both it's high points, and by being an object lesson in how to fuck things up (whether this is through record company involvement or bad decisions I don't know, both I'd imagine). Either of these topics give us something pretty interesting to talk about, but this thread is primarily for celebrating the high points. If you have something to say on that topic, Mr Domino, please do so.

If not, why not start a new thread on Aesop Rock or Prefuse 73 or new Hip Hop in general? (Your choice of artists make me a little frightened that you may veer towards "progressive" or "resistence"Hip Hop, but that's another topic. Butting into this thread, and critquing it's purpose while failing to provide any decent content of your own is a bit fucking crap, frankly.

10:38 / 18.10.07

I'm gonna write a little about 'Get Down' from God Son, despite its obvious inferiority to the new Prefuse album. A lot of rappers shoot for a 'cinematic' vibe, but nobody ever nailed it like this, a four minute blaxploitation classic with action, courtroom drama, sex, betrayal, comedy interludes and awesome fight scenes ('I moved in the manner of some Jet Li shit'), plus Nas calmly eluding the cops, advising you on avoiding anal rape, and almost punching out Three 6 Mafia. All over a glorious James Brown loop.

I mean, obviously Nas can be thoughtful when he wants to, and can also go straight-out club-no-brainer ('Oochie Wally' - which I do like) but this is something else, a technically impeccable monster that kicks his storytelling skills up out of his usual street-poet routine into widescreen blockbuster glamour. Not his best song, but surely the most fun?

08:36 / 19.10.07

Yeah I will reply to my own thread, why not?

I've been making a best-of Nas mix for a friend's birthday, 'cause she doesn't know him at all - not that weird in Australia, where I think his only hit was I Can. Anyway, I just put on Oochie Wally and GOD, that was a bad song. I remember it being fun, but I can hardly even imagine dancing to it now. The beat is close to the worst thing the Neps had done by that point, the woman who sings the hook has an ANNOYING voice, and all the verses are real weak (Jay was right about Nas' verse, too).

God, I had bad taste in 2001.

Haus of Mystery

13:00 / 19.10.07

There's a few gems on most Nas albums - 'It was written' in particular is at least half awesome. I have a real soft spot for the 'Firm' cut on that album. The beat is a spiky West Coast thing, but the drug hustle talk is pure NY rap. Foxy comes off great (despite the dodgy maths), perhaps better than she ever has since, and Cormega's intro verse is perfect, his rhyming starting just before the beat drops in a articularly satisfying way.
the firts track ('The Message') is another great example
of Nas' ability to mix exploitation gangstarism and heart wrenching honesty (which he so thouroughly and effectively did on 'Illmatic', still the best hip-hop album I own).

Don't forget his killer verses on Raekwon and Mobb Deep's first albums...Nas made his name ripping holes in other people's tracks.

Regrettable Juvenilia

13:15 / 19.10.07

From Raekwon's 'Verbal Intercourse':

Through the lights cameras and action, glamour glitter and gold
I unfold the scroll, plant seeds to stampede the globe
When I'm deceased, by then the beast'll rise like yeast
To conquer peace leaving savages to roam in the streets
Live on the run, police paying me to give in my gun
Trick my wisdom with the system that imprisoned my son
Smoke a gold leaf, I hold heat nonchalantly
I'm raunchy, but things I do is real it never haunts me
While funny style n***** roll in the pile
Rooster-heads profile on a bus to Rikers Isle
Holdin' weed inside they pussy with they minds on the pretty things in life
Props is a true thug's wife
It's like a cycle, n***** come home, some'll go in
Do a bullet, come back, do the same shit again
From the womb to the tomb, presume the unpredictable
Guns salute life, rapidly, that's the ritual

So. Fucking. Good.

13:38 / 19.10.07

Nas made his name ripping holes in other people's tracks.

From Main Source's Live at the Barbecue:

WHHHHHAAAATTTTTTTTTTT!!!!!!!

'It was written' in particular is at least half awesome.

I don't have positive memories of it - got rid of my copy, but you're right that Firm track is a fucking killer. The other one that blew me away was "I Give You Power" where Nas, erm, becomes a gun!

I seen some cold nights and bloody days
They grab and me bullets spray
They use me wrong so I sing this song 'til this day
My body is cold steel for real
I was made to kill, that's why they keep me concealed
Under car seats they sneak me in clubs
Been in the hands of mad thugs
They feed me when they load me with mad slugs
Seventeen precisely, one in my head
They call me Desert Eagle, semi-auto with lead
I'm seven inches four pounds, been through so many towns
Ohio to Little Rock to Canarsie, livin harshly
Beat up and battered, they pull me out
I watch as niggaz scattered, makin me kill
But what I feel it never mattered
When I'm empty I'm quiet, findin myself fiendin to be fired
A broken safety, niggaz place me in shelves
under beds, so I beg for my next owner to be a thoroughbred
Keep me full up with hollow heads

Again, WWWWWWHHHHHHHAAAAAAAAAAAAAATTTTTTTTTTT!!!!!!!!!

Nas can do this thing at his best where he walks a complete knife edge with thrilling nihilism on one hand and incisive socio-political comment on the other. This track is a perfect example of that.

21:18 / 19.10.07

It Was Written also has Street Dreams, right? I will rep for that!

Verbal Intercourse - best guest verse ever? I mean, Raekwon almost sounds flat after that.

23:25 / 19.10.07

"I give you power" is the fuckin phenom; some Nasty Megatron shit - I can still remember where I was exactly the first time I heard that, listening to 5-O roll by in the mean streets of the Sciennes project in Edinboro: a buddy played me it 'cos I'd been reading HHC and giving him verbatim on the extreme negative reception of 'It Was Written' which I'd not - you know - actually heard. 'Illmatic' was actually a bit too raw for me then, and the more commercial sound, softer on the untrained ear I guess, went down easier; there's some Preem for a start - I think the aforementioned is him, and he bats about, what, 850-900.

I bought 'I Am' shortly afterward, and really can't remember offhand anything particularly great about it - it's long gone to the second-hand store... checking the tracklist 'Nas is Like' rocked some classic, scratched up sadstring loop and had him listing various things that Nas was like, I remember them being pretty clever. 'Hate Me Now' with Puffy - it had, well, it had Puffy which was like anathema at the time but I dig on the biblical demagoguery sound in retrospect. 'Favor for a Favor' with Scarface had a pretty bonesnapping beat. There was just a load of trying to glom onto other peoples shit then, like there's a Ruff Rydaz teamup that naturally fucking sucks and a lot of second-rate shit like 'Money is my Bitch' which tries to rock the extended metaphor like 'I gave you Power' but isn't a patch on the success. I pretty much gave up on Nas after that, sadly; he's done some good singles occasionally and 'Stillmatic', I think, was well received? I'm pretty sure 'I Am' is a nadir, anyway, but there's maybe 2-3 to harvest from it.

...I think my fave-o guest rhyme is Ras Kass on Bobby Digital or the other way round. No-one ever talks about Ras, you know? He was like the RAW of hip-hop which is better than it sounds, metaphors were literally 'metafives', generally suffered from some weak sauce prduction on his own albums tho.

01:00 / 20.10.07

Ruff Rydaz teamup that naturally fucking sucks

Now I am at a loss for what is the most nuts thing written on this thread. I mean that's no Mr Domino, and I don't remember the track you're talking about, but Ruff Rydaz = total classic as a rule.

Also I Am is awesome just for Dr Knockboot, and Give You Power is the most overrated Nas song. Yeah, you're a gun I get it! But this is also what makes him great, that he will take weird chances that don't necessarily work, but when they do, are awesome (I Can, Sekou Story).

01:06 / 20.10.07

Also, Nastradamus is clearly the nadir, surely?

22:16 / 21.10.07

I'm listening to "Get Down" right now. Wow. Who produced it? The blaxplotation vibe totally fits the JB loop.

Are there any good tracks on Nastradamus?

03:08 / 22.10.07

It's Salaam Remi I think.

03:11 / 22.10.07

I mean Salaam Remi produced Get Down, not Salaam Remi is a good song from Nastradamus, obviously.

06:34 / 28.10.07

This post contains spoilers for Sekou Story.

This song is so awesome - to me, it's like the kind of song Prince would have done if he'd been a rapper, down to the Camille-style pitched up femme alter ego. The first verse is awesome Nas party-bullshit rhymes about hanging out with a dude named Sekou, over a real funky soul loop, with the great evocative details he uses so well sometimes - 'talking bout some dudes both of us know/never heard drunken words spoken so slow' (the internal rhymes in those lines alone just kill me).

But the long verse ends with the abrupt and unexpected news that Sekou's been killed, and the song instantly switches to these heavy tragic strings for a kind of bridge. Then the beat kicks back in, and it's the same sample, but flipped different so suddenly the funk is replaced with gravitas. Nas raps the verse as Sekou's girlfriend, and is just amazing. She's appealing for Nas' help in avenging his death, but the tone and phrasing create such an intense sense of her strength and fortitude it knocks me out every time. It's got a pace to it that's close to the rhythm of mourning - like she doesn't know if she can keep going, and every word is a kind of numb experiment to see if she can continue. Then there's my favourite bit - 'toes tagged up/arrangements closed casket/but a ho has to/maintain...' The phrasing on 'ho has to' is as close to perfect as anything you'll ever hear - there's more strength and dignity there than in a thousand gangster boasts.

This song rules.

02:53 / 25.07.08

Has anyone heard the new one? I can't download at the moment so I'm probably going to wait till it's on special or something.

The Incredible Kid

15:36 / 25.08.08

I recommend checking out his new CD. While the production isn't thrilling, Nas' attempt to really say something is. Sly Fox is great. It feels like he is really pushing his rhymes to the next level of complexity and content. Nas played my hometown of Portland for the first time ever a few months ago, and he absolutely held the crowd in his palm with just himself and a DJ.