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

[Ziggiy]

The discourse is going to get so much worse once the sales numbers drop. Lord Jesus.

Neither Nas or Premo particularly care about sales. They both said so on Budden’s interview

 

[prophecypro]

I was thinking the same. GnX was just laid out so dope man. Or spin back with Hit 1 more time. I wouldn't mind an EP with Alc

I would love if him and Hit ran together but it seems they need more time apar to be missed

It’s always weird to feel jn search of another producer for Nas because it ultimately depends on the direction they go


But I will say Havoc might not be bad

 

[Cladyclad]

Neither Nas or Premo particularly care about sales. They both said so on Budden’s interview

This guy was the one posting iTunes charts

Now it dont matter lol

 

[Dwight Howard]

It just blows my mind how a lot of the same ppl who cried FOR YEARS about Nas going commercial, how Nas needed to make another “Illmatic” are panning this album. True mental illness.

Problem is this production is nowhere near illmatic status. Not in the same stratosphere

 

[Chip Skylark]

Premo said all NYSM have the same tempos. Now i have to plug all of them into garageband lol

 

[yesiambowling]

Joe Budden interview is exactly what real ones been saying all along.

This album was purposely made the way it was.

Its for the day ones meaning the ones who really lived this hip hop shyt. 90% in this thread didn't. Yall didn't make beats in the lunch room or on your desk in class in 1992. This a true old head album

That simple hollow unmastered sound with the baseline. THAT WAS HIPHOP. This thread really showing who from the culture and who aint.

Would have been heavily acclaimed in 1992, but it ends up sounding quite a bit dated right now.

Come off this goofy shyt. Just because that was the style doesn't mean the execution was perfect. I was one of the first people pointing out how much this sounded like early 90s Gang Starr and bigging it up for that. I still found it somewhat underwhelming.


Y'all supposed to be the generation against participation trophies...(Wait, y'all are the ones that started it for your kids nvm )

Early as in after Step in the Arena and Daily Operation but maybe before Hard to Earn.

 

[JustCKing]

With Nas, a lot of fans fall into the trap of seeing the producer he's working, listen to said producer's recent work, and expecting similar or better results with Nas. Then they hear the work with Nas and are underwhelmed because the producer produced a Nas song and not songs that sound like the songs they liked that they just heard on another album. To some degree, all if us as Nas fans have done it. In extreme cases, it is the basis of the "Nas picks wack beats" narrative. In reality, it is pretty much us as fans expecting the beats to sound like what was given to other artists.

Then when it doesn't meet expectations, fans fall into the trap of what his next album should sound like and who we think he should be working with.

 

[CHERUB]

Nas and Preme tell you what it is from they own mouth and nikkas still mad. Goofy ass weirdos no one respects ya opinion

 

[Knucklehead]

yall expose and contradict yourselves too much

Now you had to bang on the desk at school in 92 to like the beats

The beats are hollow because that’s hip hop

Then shyt on Hit Boy Thun (boom bap)


Like what ?

You wouldn’t be saying this if you were an OG member of The Funky Four Plus One! They were listening to and flipping Steve Miller samples all day every day!

 

[criminology]

What’s the point of making all that crypto Scarface money if you don’t just pay for the samples you want?

 

[yesiambowling]

What’s the point of making all that crypto Scarface money if you don’t just pay for the samples you want?

Raising the budget to a ridiculous degree won't make the album that much better man.

 

[spliz]

yall expose and contradict yourselves too much

Now you had to bang on the desk at school in 92 to like the beats

The beats are hollow because that’s hip hop

Then shyt on Hit Boy Thun (boom bap)


Like what ?

nikkas said they wanted Boom Bap and completely ignored Magic. Lol. Wild af.
Like. If Premo made this beat nikkas would be all over it.

 

[New Jeruzalem Journalist]

What’s the point of making all that crypto Scarface money if you don’t just pay for the samples you want?

This. But at the end of the day, regardless of what comes out of any of their mouths, this is still thr music BUSINESS. They may not care about sales, but I'm sure they expected to be compensated for their work. For decades I've been arguing and wondering why somebody like Jay-Z or Nas, or any of these older legends that grew up loving this shyt didn't just grab Premier, Pete, etc and throw us a bone of an EP just doing the shyt we love and the shyt that got them famous in the first place. This album is the reality of that dream, but it also shows the reality about artwork meshing with corporate interests.

Nas ain't about to drop millions of dollars paying for an album overloaded with samples. As you get older and view the world through a different lens, you understand the rich play by and think under different rules than us. So while I love the album and am thankful for it, I also am resigned to the fact that my "dream album" is a dream for a reason. It doesn't and could unfortunately never exist.

 

[Tetris v2.0]

Sample packs. Drum kits. Same shyt certain people cried about when Hit Boy was doing it is now spun as real rap for day one fans of late 80s/early 90s hip hop. You know, the good old days when guys used uh...sample packs, kits, and a corny white bassist to make boom bap. We all remember those days right?



I called this days ago and people said it was a conspiracy. It's obvious. Polo is all over the credits, there's live instrumentation on multiple tracks, and while there are samples on the album it's clear as day they were limited.

Yeah, I'm not seeing how Premier using sounds from an understudy like Marco Polo adds value to the project beyond saving on sample costs...

He'd rather sample whiteboy arrangements than the type of records (jazz/funk/soul) that inspired this album??

It doesn't make sense to me...

Again, still enjoying the project but this is making a lot of sense as to why the beats sound the way they do

 

[H. Selassie]

By the 3rd listen, a few joints really stuck:

Madman
Writers
Young Kings
My Story Your Story
Junkie
Shine Together

Nas’s writing detail/rapping is just . Easily has at least another 5 albums in him.

When I look at this through the lens of Nas & Preme’s ode to the era of Hip-Hop they came of age in, I’m not mad at it. That said…I do NOT need another one of these. Bring back Hit-Boy…bring Alchemist with him.

Was happy to hear in the Joe Budden interview he & AZ are trying to link for a full Esco/Sosa EP. That will be fire.