Nas just had a terrible performance at Fun Fun Fun Fest in Austin, Tx and I was there to see it with my own eyes and it hurt me because I am a huge Nas fan.
He was scheduled to perform the Illmatic album in its entirety + some of his other hits. The crowd was huge, and everyone was pumped for Nas, the subway car sounds from the intro of illmatic came on and people were going crazy, Nas should of had this show in the palm of his hand.
He comes out and raps new york state of mind, he seemed to be doing quite a bit of crowd interaction shyt(where he would start out a line and the audience would finish it) which was kinda cool at first because the crowd was so into it. However in the next couple songs it started to become apparent that Nas did not remember some of the lyrics to his songs and he did not have the breath control he once had. I wanted to give him a pass, illmatic came out 20 years ago of course he is gonna miss a couple words here and there I told myself and maybe he's lost some steps along the way. The crowd was still into it.
As he went through the songs of Illmatic he started to miss more and more words in his verses, he even started to miss entire bars and to cover it up he was trying to act like he was doing crowd interaction where the crowd was supposed to finish the bar. The crowd was still hype even after he finished fumbling through It Aint Hard To Tell. I still had hope that once Nas started playing his newer songs he would surely have them memorized better and would really show everyone at FFF Fest why he is considered a legend.
The next song Nas played was The Message and it became instantly apparent he had not memorized this song or the drugs/alcohol he ingested before the show were really starting to take effect. Nas began to rap a couple words in each bar at the most, doing it confidently as if it was some new style he was trying. The crowd started to become noticeably less into it.
He started to run through other songs like If I Ruled The World and Made You Look, at this point in the show Nas was rapping so poorly it sounded like he was just doing what a hype man would do for him, saying the last word in the bar, saying "YEAH" and then saying the next rhyming word at the end of the bar. The crowd was very not into the show at this point, Nas tried to get a "BRAVE HEARTS" chant started at the beginning of Made You Look and got basically nothing in response. Awkward.
Nas ended with One Mic, as the beat to one mic started to play he explained to the crowd that he usually brings his brother out on stage and tells the story about how his brother helped him write the song, he asked the DJ to restart the beat so he could tell the story, the beat restarted, Nas told the crowd that he had writers block and that his brother came up with the first 4 lines and Nas did the rest, as he "finished" the story he tried to go right into rapping the beginning of One mic but fukked it up instantly, he asked the DJ to restart the beat claiming he didnt get to finish the story. Nas again begins again to tell the story of how his brother came up with the first 4 lines and that its so hard to write new albums all the time but doesnt finish the story up before he was supposed to start rapping, he asks the DJ to restart the beat. This time nas finally gets through the story and successfully raps the first 4 lines (then added in "this is where I took over") and then began to rap the rest of the verse, occasionally missing whole bars again, Nas tried to end the verse all hype and energizezd to get a big applause break during the chorus but he got NOTHING. It was so quiet, the audience was sick of his bullshyt at this point and nas could feel it. He loudly sighed into the mic and then sat down on stage and poorly rapped the next verse to his song, stood up again, sat down on the ground again to rap his last verse then got up and said "THanks thats all i have to say" and walked off stage, people gave him respect and clapped for him but it was a tepid response at best.
TLDR I smoked 2 blunts at a Nas concert and Nas performed terribly. Nas Lost.
He was scheduled to perform the Illmatic album in its entirety + some of his other hits. The crowd was huge, and everyone was pumped for Nas, the subway car sounds from the intro of illmatic came on and people were going crazy, Nas should of had this show in the palm of his hand.
He comes out and raps new york state of mind, he seemed to be doing quite a bit of crowd interaction shyt(where he would start out a line and the audience would finish it) which was kinda cool at first because the crowd was so into it. However in the next couple songs it started to become apparent that Nas did not remember some of the lyrics to his songs and he did not have the breath control he once had. I wanted to give him a pass, illmatic came out 20 years ago of course he is gonna miss a couple words here and there I told myself and maybe he's lost some steps along the way. The crowd was still into it.
As he went through the songs of Illmatic he started to miss more and more words in his verses, he even started to miss entire bars and to cover it up he was trying to act like he was doing crowd interaction where the crowd was supposed to finish the bar. The crowd was still hype even after he finished fumbling through It Aint Hard To Tell. I still had hope that once Nas started playing his newer songs he would surely have them memorized better and would really show everyone at FFF Fest why he is considered a legend.
The next song Nas played was The Message and it became instantly apparent he had not memorized this song or the drugs/alcohol he ingested before the show were really starting to take effect. Nas began to rap a couple words in each bar at the most, doing it confidently as if it was some new style he was trying. The crowd started to become noticeably less into it.
He started to run through other songs like If I Ruled The World and Made You Look, at this point in the show Nas was rapping so poorly it sounded like he was just doing what a hype man would do for him, saying the last word in the bar, saying "YEAH" and then saying the next rhyming word at the end of the bar. The crowd was very not into the show at this point, Nas tried to get a "BRAVE HEARTS" chant started at the beginning of Made You Look and got basically nothing in response. Awkward.
Nas ended with One Mic, as the beat to one mic started to play he explained to the crowd that he usually brings his brother out on stage and tells the story about how his brother helped him write the song, he asked the DJ to restart the beat so he could tell the story, the beat restarted, Nas told the crowd that he had writers block and that his brother came up with the first 4 lines and Nas did the rest, as he "finished" the story he tried to go right into rapping the beginning of One mic but fukked it up instantly, he asked the DJ to restart the beat claiming he didnt get to finish the story. Nas again begins again to tell the story of how his brother came up with the first 4 lines and that its so hard to write new albums all the time but doesnt finish the story up before he was supposed to start rapping, he asks the DJ to restart the beat. This time nas finally gets through the story and successfully raps the first 4 lines (then added in "this is where I took over") and then began to rap the rest of the verse, occasionally missing whole bars again, Nas tried to end the verse all hype and energizezd to get a big applause break during the chorus but he got NOTHING. It was so quiet, the audience was sick of his bullshyt at this point and nas could feel it. He loudly sighed into the mic and then sat down on stage and poorly rapped the next verse to his song, stood up again, sat down on the ground again to rap his last verse then got up and said "THanks thats all i have to say" and walked off stage, people gave him respect and clapped for him but it was a tepid response at best.
TLDR I smoked 2 blunts at a Nas concert and Nas performed terribly. Nas Lost.
@ that's all I have to say
