Albums Nas & DJ Premier - Light-Years (Discussion Thread)

[TheDarceKnight]

I like this so much more from Writers to the end.

I'm trying to be less let down by the beats on here. Again, I wasn't expecting Primo in his prime, but cot damn, I really thought at least 1 or 2 Primo/Nas beats would've ended up in my top 10 favorite beats of 2025, and not a single beat on the album is a top 10 beat for me this year.

These are seriously some of Nas' best rapping and concepts. The soundscapes just aren't there for me.

 

[Izanami]

My top 3 so far:

It's Time - this track isn't talked about enough imo.
Writers
Madman...or Junkie

The last verse on “It’s Time” might be Nas best on here. Def a high caliber rap performance on that one

 

[Alexander Wiggin]

Difference is Playa Hater is funny while Dr. Knockboot is awkward. You dont get points for the attempt.

"Nas has written some of the greatest hip hop songs ever" has zilch to do with this conversation. Like I said, Nas has strengths so high that the weaknesses arent a big deal...but he DOES have weaknesses, that being one of them. Its okay.

Dr Knockboot wasn't a favorite track of mine but it was considered funny at that time. Its just that people held nas on a standard that he wasn't allowed to be "light" on his subject. I always found biggie's sexual skits corny at that time. don't think people wasn't criticizing your favorite rappers. Jay got killed for vol 1 he had to release street is watching to balance the retail

 

[JustCKing]

Let’s be reality here.
The idea that this site somehow hates on Nas is laughable on every level. This is more than anything a Nas fan site.
What it’s not is a safe space for where any criticism of Nas is somehow an insult. He will never read any of these posts and even if he did everyone is entitled to their own tastes and opinions.
This is an album that people have been waiting decades for. Staked their entire online persona on. Hated on every producer he worked with because this is what they wanted.
Reasonable minds can differ on the overall quality of this album but I would wager that exceedingly few fans would have it as even close to a top 10 Nas album. People were complaining about the year end lists coming out too early but i doubt almost anyone thinks this album would be on any of them.
It doesn’t mean it’s a bad album it just means people are disappointed. It’s not an attack on Nas or Nas fandom it’s just how people feel.
We’re on a message board in 2025. There are no “casuals” here. They’re long gone. Just be happy Nas and Preem are alive healthy and making music.

This. All of this.

I didn't post much in this thread because I knew where it would lead before one note of music was even heard.

 

[Life is Good]

Some of y’all should be embarrassed to call yourselves MEN. There is NO WAY the comments posted on this thread come from mature adults with families or an employment history.

 

[Overpss]

I comeback to this thread to see Nas isn't an elite songwriter? nikka been around since 91 double digit plaques 6 #1 albums/ How the fukk he move units based off his lyrics alone?. Yeah some of you nikkaz need to exit this thread

This has nothing to do with "songwriting".

 

[FunkDoc1112]

I like this so much more from Writers to the end.

I'm trying to be less let down by the beats on here. Again, I wasn't expecting Primo in his prime, but cot damn, I really thought at least 1 or 2 Primo/Nas beats would've ended up in my top 10 favorite beats of 2025, and not a single beat on the album is a top 10 beat for me this year.

These are seriously some of Nas' best rapping and concepts. The soundscapes just aren't there for me.

Yup, exactly. If everything was the Level of Writers or Git Ready this shyt would be fine, and its frustrating because the songs that do fall flat would easily be better with one or two fixes. That's why I keep being specific about the flaws because with all of these beats, the POTENTIAL to be 10/10s are still there. I'm not nitpicking to nitpick, it's because the skeletons of these beats are so worthwhile and just in need of some extra love that we can more easily see what areas they're lacking in.

People dont know what constructive criticism looks like these days lmao

 

[New Jeruzalem Journalist]

Fail to understand why a song about pause tapes, called "Pause Tapes", has a beat that sounds like a pause tape, hip-hop brehs.

 

[TheDarceKnight]

Fail to understand why a song about pause tapes, called "Pause Tapes", has a beat that sounds like a pause tape, hip-hop brehs.

I don't know if this was directed to me, but Pause Tapes is one of my favorites on here and the instrumental for it is perfect

 

[Izanami]

I like this so much more from Writers to the end.

I'm trying to be less let down by the beats on here. Again, I wasn't expecting Primo in his prime, but cot damn, I really thought at least 1 or 2 Primo/Nas beats would've ended up in my top 10 favorite beats of 2025, and not a single beat on the album is a top 10 beat for me this year.

These are seriously some of Nas' best rapping and concepts. The soundscapes just aren't there for me.

Nas rapping on Welcome To The Underground is so good and yet that beat doesn’t give him justice. Then “Madman” drops and it’s easily the best beat on the album from the 1-5.

 

[((ReFleXioN)) EteRNaL]

The problems with this album are simply a matter of execution, not style. I would like to hear Nas with some of TDEs guys but any problems this album has is an indictment of Premo at this stage of his career, not this type of boom bap, a lot of these songs have easy fixes that would make the debates moot.

People keep bigging up Hit Boy but it's not like his beats were the Smithsonian, hell a lot of them do have similar hollowness in different ways, a lot of "Type beats"

I was never a big fan of hitboys beats.....they got that tincan sound to em. Terrible mixing. No thump.

Come to find out he uses sample pack loops. Then it all made sense to me.

 

[TheDarceKnight]

Nas rapping on Welcome To The Underground is so good and yet that beat doesn’t give him justice. Then “Madman” drops and it’s easily the best beat on the album from the 1-5.

100%

 

[FunkDoc1112]

Let’s be reality here.
The idea that this site somehow hates on Nas is laughable on every level. This is more than anything a Nas fan site.
What it’s not is a safe space for where any criticism of Nas is somehow an insult. He will never read any of these posts and even if he did everyone is entitled to their own tastes and opinions.
This is an album that people have been waiting decades for. Staked their entire online persona on. Hated on every producer he worked with because this is what they wanted.
Reasonable minds can differ on the overall quality of this album but I would wager that exceedingly few fans would have it as even close to a top 10 Nas album. People were complaining about the year end lists coming out too early but i doubt almost anyone thinks this album would be on any of them.
It doesn’t mean it’s a bad album it just means people are disappointed. It’s not an attack on Nas or Nas fandom it’s just how people feel.
We’re on a message board in 2025. There are no “casuals” here. They’re long gone. Just be happy Nas and Preem are alive healthy and making music.

THANK YOU.
All the "You're a casual" or "You're too young" shyt is fukking goofy because anybody posting on a hip-hop message board in 2025 is almost inherently disqualified from that category (ESPECIALLY one that has had registration closed for almost a decade lmao). With the exception of @Mike the Executioner im probably the youngest nikka in this thread...at 33 shyt the fact that I'm checking for Premo and Nas in my age group and pointing out how similar this sound is to albums that came out when I was still a fetus shows the type of demographic were all sitting amongst at this place. nikkas gotta save the casuals talk for Twitter and Reddit, because anybody that's on here is either an old heads or an anomaly; all this patronizing shyt is dumb and usually in lieu of a good defense of the music.

 

[TheDarceKnight]

I was never a big fan of hitboys beats.....they got that tincan sound to em. Terrible mixing. No thump.

Come to find out he uses sample pack loops. Then it all made sense to me.

HB doesn't only use sample packs. He definitely does use them, but he samples legit existing songs as well.

And even guys like Madlib and Conductor Williams have both dipped into sample packs the past few years. If it sounds dope, it sounds dope.

Now, if you just don't think most of Hit-Boy's stuff sounds dope, then that's fair. But I think he gets too much flack for the sample pack stuff.

 

[New Jeruzalem Journalist]

I don't know if this was directed to me, but Pause Tapes is one of my favorites on here and the instrumental for it is perfect

Oh nah, definitely not breh. There have been several posts in here just straight up shytting on the beat. I honestly missed yours, I'm several pages behind, lol. I

But the criticism over how the beat is constructed would be like complaining that Nas was spitting over 7 Minutes of Funk for a remix of "Beat Breaks".