My issue is that the type of people who want this album the most are also the type of people who will listen to the first 3 tracks and declare that it's not as good as Illmatic, it's not as good as it would be if it came out in 1999, etc. So it's really a lose lose situation with a lot of people who sat around complaining about the Hit Boy albums. Because they're going to complain about everything since they won't just admit they haven't liked Nas since 1995 or 1996 or 1999 or 2001 or 2002.
Yeah, I'm 100% sure the people who complain about the Hit-Boy albums aren't going to like this album that much more. Do they just want good music, or a modern-day classic that's going to shift the culture? The hot takes are going to come on the first day when they realize they're not getting "Nas is Like" or "2nd Childhood." Did you see the post in the Big L thread talking about how Nas is rapping about nothing, Hit-Boy made him lazy, and Premier will help him rewrite bad verses? These are the people who want the album the most.
I think the album is still going to be really good, but what we should be comparing it to is the height of the Hit-Boy era (Magic/KD3) and the rest of the Legend Has It stuff. Does it stand up to all those projects or top them? If it does, then Nas and Premier did their job.
I think anybody even thinking about comparing this album to Illmatic, is a casual. No matter how good it'll be.
The OG Nas fans who've been around since day one, just want this to be a dope album. And I don’t mean Coli's version of dope. But like outside dope, lol. At this point, it just needs to be incredible. A lot of vets are scared to drop new music because they don’t think people would care. But if Nas and Primo can drop something that meets expectations, I think we see a shift in how the legends start dropping more music. This is a mad important project.
Isn't that the same thing, though? You say the only people who would even compare it to Illmatic are casuals, but then it also needs to be incredible and
outside dope. The OG Nas fans would compare it to Illmatic since they've been around from day one, no? And they
are going to compare it to the rest of the Nas/Premier tracks, since that's all there is to compare it to.
Truth is, people want a classic from Nas and Premier. Nothing more, nothing less. Anything that falls short of that will be a disappointment. I don't think either of their legacies will be in question if the album hypothetically sucks, but it seems like certain people really need this album to be something next-level that moves the needle or they don't know what they're going to do with themselves.
Nothing Hit Boy has made in the last 10 years is seeing Premier's best work. Can he replicate that in 2025 remains to be seen but y'all severely overrate Hit Boy because he worked with Nas.
Do you y'all even fukk with Hit Boy outside of the Nas albums? I don't see 98% of the people praising the Nas albums in any thread involving his production away from Nas.
Let's see how things turn out but people are already being fake because the same ones who were anti Nas/Premier and saying those of us still asking for the album were stuck in the 90's are now excited for the album
The issue came when people were downplaying Hit-Boy and discrediting him in favor of guys like Premier and Alchemist, who they thought were better choices to work with Nas. It wasn't just "I'm ready for Nas to lock in with other producers." It was "This guy sucks. Does Nas owe him money or something? Why isn't he doing six albums with producers way better than him?"
Meanwhile, those same people are worried about Premier not having it anymore with the beats and questioning why the Nas album is happening now. No one's really being honest about this stuff. The Mobb Deep album was really good, but if we get that same quality in December, you'll still get a bunch of whiners and complainers wondering why it's not 90s-level Nas/Premier.
