Albums Nas & DJ Premier - Light-Years (December 12th)

[Budda]

Exactly.

The Coli has literally become a place where weirdos like to pretend and live in an alternate reality. We literally just had a few talks about how mad people on here were calling dude "trash" after Everybody Can't Go, last year. I think in the Mobb Deep thread, people were back to calling him "generic" and "overrated". He's been getting clowned on here and outside for a minute. Acting like that's not the case is wild.

And yeah, if Benny replaced HB with Daringer for that album, we'd probably be talking classic. He can go beat for beat with ALC, and the sh*t doesn't lose steam. "Dough & Damani" is proof of that.

Alternate relaity? Kd2 and 3 are Nas most critically acclaimed albums since Life Is Good, there is no alternate reality, those albums were well received.

 

[Mike the Executioner]

Alternate relaity? Kd2 and 3 are Nas most critically acclaimed albums since Life Is Good, there is no alternate reality, those albums were well received.

Yeah, let's not revise history like the Hit-Boy run was just average. When King's Disease came out, it got a lot of positive feedback. It was the album we needed coming off of Nasir and it helped get rid of a lot of narratives surrounding Nas' music. One of which was the "bad beats" stereotype. I say this all the time, but even Max from Hip Hop Isn't Dead was impressed. He had spent years running Nas down and criticizing all of his albums after Illmatic. He felt like for the first time in a while, Nas sounded like he was having fun and gave him his props. The way I saw it was that if one of Nas' harshest critics got something out of the album, then it did something right.

I didn't start seeing any real criticism surrounding the Hit-Boy era until KD3, and even then, most of the feedback was still positive. I just listened to KD2 tonight to see if my ears were working properly, and they are because it's still a really good album. In real time, all the Hit-Boy albums were acclaimed until Magic 2.

 

[Awesome Wells]

I would have liked to hear what Nas was working on with Dre back in 2020. That snippet of them in the studio was dope, but then Dre went to the hospital.

Did Nas and Q-Tip ever do more work after Illmatic, or was it just "American Way" and the LL feature?

Tip said Nas was coming out to his house around 2016, when he was working on the last Tribe album and that they floated ideas back and forth for some work.

But who knows if they worked on anything. Tip works on so much sh*t secretly. He could have a whole Nas album in there, and we'd never know, lol. I hope he does. And I hope it magically ends up on my phone or some sh*t.

 

[Supa]

Tip said Nas was coming out to his house around 2016, when he was working on the last Tribe album and that they floated ideas back and forth for some work.

But who knows if they worked on anything. Tip works on so much sh*t secretly. He could have a whole Nas album in there, and we'd never know, lol. I hope he does. And I hope it magically ends up on my phone or some sh*t.

If Nas does another 1 producer album it should be with Q Tip.

 

[kes929]

I don't like the Hitboy albums not because i'm living in the past expecting Nas to drop another Memory Lane or Take It In Blood or Nas Is Like. I was on SOHH defending Hip Hop is Dead and Untitled when people were calling it wack.

I just don't think Hitboy is a very good producer.

But Premo ain't really done shyt either in the last 15 years so I can't say I'm expecting too much.

Ultimately, I'd prefer Nas go back to the multiple producer format.

If Nas had an album coming out and it said produced by God himself, some of yall would still complain. If you listened to some of those hit boy. Especially KD3 and said hit boy isn’t a good producer then chances are you went into their albums with a negative mind frame.

 

[Figaro]

If Nas had an album coming out and it said produced by God himself, some of yall would still complain. If you listened to some of those hit boy. Especially KD3 and said hit boy isn’t a good producer then chances are you went into their albums with a negative mind frame.

I went in to KD 1 with a negative mind frame & still enjoyed the run.

But I can understand if somebody doesn’t like Hit Boys production, even though he’s vastly improved in the last 4-5 years.

 

[kes929]

I went in to KD 1 with a negative mind frame & still enjoyed the run.

But I can understand if somebody doesn’t like Hit Boys production, even though he’s vastly improved in the last 4-5 years.

You have the ability to adapt and change your mind presented with new evidence. Unfortunately some people don’t have that ability.

 

[TheDarceKnight]

I went in to KD 1 with a negative mind frame & still enjoyed the run.

But I can understand if somebody doesn’t like Hit Boys production, even though he’s vastly improved in the last 4-5 years.

There's definitely a weird dichotomy around Hit-Boy online. I think he's a talented producer, but my main issue with his beats have always been that IMHO they lack some personal identity, and I feel like he's kind of a chameleon that is always doing other peoples' styles. That being said, the final sound is usually dope. Funny enough I think his rapping is as good as his producing.

My biggest gripe with him is that he's producing an album for N3ON who has a history of some of the grossest racist behaviors and comments, and has now scrubbed his career to try and make money from black art. And apparently has pulled it off. I just can't believe that Hit-Boy is on board with him. N3ON is just the most textbook definition of a culture vulture that I've ever seen, and I truly think he's a racist piece of shyt, and I hate that HB is producing him to help whitewash his image.

 

[Artfull Dodger]

I would have liked to hear what Nas was working on with Dre back in 2020. That snippet of them in the studio was dope, but then Dre went to the hospital.

Did Nas and Q-Tip ever do more work after Illmatic, or was it just "American Way" and the LL feature?

The beat and chorus were not good. i dont think they ever did tracks that have been released since then.

 

[Dylmatic]

Primo talking about the album, timestamped.

 

[Artfull Dodger]

Primo talking about the album, timestamped.

wow.....great interview
Primo with great in insights n recap stories
Ransom cool n funny dude

 

[T.H.E.GOD]

If I gave you power would have been on illmatic….
can’t believe preme said nas wanted to do that type of song during illmatic. Crazy

 

[Mike the Executioner]

The beat and chorus were not good. i dont think they ever did tracks that have been released since then.

I liked the beat (someone said the song was like Death Certificate-era Cube with a steroid pen), but I'm with you on the chorus. It should have just been "Nas is a rebel to America" scratched repeatedly.

Oddly enough, Kelis' singing later on in the song doesn't bother me. Maybe because she's actually trying to incorporate melody.

 

[Piff Perkins]

Very interesting comments. Premo sounds confident. Like he understands the importance, understands what Nas sounds best on and knows he’s getting the job done.

 

[T.H.E.GOD]

Very interesting comments. Premo sounds confident. Like he understands the importance, understands what Nas sounds best on and knows he’s getting the job done.

said he got a lot of criticism for the single they dropped so I’m guessing he also understands the expectations for this one and knows the assignment.