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

[L $ C]

Nas carried this album so hard lmfao. Easily the goat isn’t even close. Guy could rap to a tin can bouncing down a stairway and make it a great song

 

[Alexander Wiggin]

When KD dropped cats hated Ultra Black, Spicy and said the middle run was too RnB.

When KD2 dropped cats hated 40 Side, the Em feature and KDTV and said the album didn't really pick up until Store Run.

When Magic dropped cats was hating on Meet Joe Black, and saying Wave Gods had weak drums.

When KD3 dropped cats hated Recession Proof and WTF SMH and said it was good but not on the same level as Magic and KD2

When Magic 2 dropped cats said the 50 feature was lacking, One Gun One Mic is trash and the album overall was weak and the Nas/HB run was starting to fall off.

When Magic 3 dropped, there weren't many complaints but it definitely didn't hit as hard as the earlier albums and generally feels like it was largely slept on compared to the rest of the Nas/HB run.

Now you got people saying this album is Nas worst album.

Some folks just be hating, overanalizing and picking everything apart. Me personally, I loved all them joints in real time. I love that this album goes for a different vibe than those albums.

I'm agree but you're reaching on kd3 and magic. Which cats on here complained on Meet Joe black and recession proof

 

[JayBaldacci]

Dudes here acting perplexed when someone ranks this higher than KD2. Lol

Nas' rap performance here>>>KD2.

I personally feel Nas was on cruise control on several tracks on KD2 which is why I rank it slightly lower, even if the production was better.

Best 9 songs on LY are just as good, if not better, than Magic. Some of you dudes, for some odd reason, can't even see that.

KD3 still reigns supreme among all of them, though.

And yes, he's a better writer than your favorite MC. It's not even debatable.

Nas is on cruise control on this album... save sons, it's time, the last verse on Junkie.

 

[spliz]

Dudes here acting perplexed when someone ranks this higher than KD2. Lol

Nas' rap performance here>>>KD2.

I personally feel Nas was on cruise control on several tracks on KD2 which is why I rank it slightly lower, even if the production was better.

Best 9 songs on LY are just as good, if not better, than Magic. Some of you dudes, for some odd reason, can't even see that.

KD3 still reigns supreme among all of them, though.

And yes, he's a better writer than your favorite MC. It's not even debatable.

Composure >>>>>>>> every song on Light Years u wildin out. lol. This music at the end of the day. And every song on Magic is better than most of Light Years. It also flows better. And I like Light Years.

 

[spliz]

I'm agree but you're reaching on kd3 and magic. Which cats on here complained on Meet Joe black and recession proof

I ain’t seen none of that. Lol

 

[IllmaticDelta]

I'm agree but you're reaching on kd3 and magic. Which cats on here complained on Meet Joe black and recession proof

I def remember some cats (especially on twitter) hating on Meet Joe Black

 

[JYoung24]

Kendrick is a better songwriter than Nas ever was. By miles. The only rappers who can compare to Kendrick in that department are Pac, Big, and Jay. And even those guys don't have Kendricks versatility with the pen. Nas was never in that category as a song writer. I don't know why you guys pretend that he was. I have Nas ahead of Jay all time but he could never construct a song like hov.

Thats not true at all and Jay cant even do a chours better than Nas let alone song

 

[JYoung24]

Yes to me. Great songwriting should be able to appeal to a worldwide audience. Nas has tried MANY of times to do that and failed. That's just a fact. He tried desperately to cross over. Then when he couldn't he dropped this cope


"Making hits is easy.
Put a famous bytch on the hook
there you go with a platinum CD"


This was 100% sour grapes on nas's part. He knows making hits isn't easy. Even with a "famous bytch". It takes a very special talent to make worldwide rap HITS. Nas was never that guy. Kendrick is far more versatile with the pen. You're telling me gun to your head if you needed Nas or Kendrick to make a song that charts top 10 worldwide. I don't care what the beat is. You're gonna give it to Nas?....let's be serious here. Kendrick is just in a different league as an all around song writer. And yes. Song writing is apart of lyricism.

Nas did not fail he did cross over those attempts were hits and he sold millions of records only backers said he failed

 

[JYoung24]

The truth is somewhere in the middle.

Being able to make dense, complex lyricism palatable for the masses IS a skill, something that Biggie and Jay are probably the GOATs at. Nas' limitations with this has always been pretty exaggerated...but he is Hit Or Miss at it; for every If I Ruled The World he has a Dr. Knockboot, a lot of "Whut da hell is a Polar Bear doin in Arlington, Texas???" moments...dont make me run back the "Nas has weird sex bars" thread

Like somebody brought up You Owe Me but like...that nikka had reparation bars on a hook about Getting Head for ice, that's some "p*ssy tighter than the conditions of us black folks" level of and not in a "See hes kicking deep shyt on a commercial record" way but just a total nonsequitir, "Not reading the room" shyt; a conscious rapper caught in unfamiliar territory. A polar bear in Arlington Texas lol

Of course, Nas' strengths are so strong that it makes it a moot point, but it is a leg up that Kendrick has on him.

But you owe me rings off though its the main reason the album went plat

 

[987654321]

I can see it now. This album will be the worst thing some of you have ever heard and it will be good to others.

Hoping Nas does a live NYE performance of “Welcome to the Underground” to rub salt in the wound

 

[Tommy Gibbs]

Hoping Nas does a live NYE performance of “Welcome to the Underground” to rub salt in the wound

I called it

 

[Cyborg11]

Nas is and has always been my GOAT - I hated this album on my first two listens.

After sitting with it for a while now and letting the initial disappointment pass, I appreciate it a lot more and can comfortably say I really enjoy 80% of it.

Posters on here keep bringing up "oh, we shouldn't be expecting 90s/00s Premo". There's no beats on this album even close to En EFF or Sunny Storms from the De La album LAST MONTH. That's what I was expecting and I was pretty let down. That being said I'd say overall the beats are solid, Writers and Shine Together being standouts for me.

The hate on WTTU is a bit overblown IMO. Was it a strong snippet to leak? Definitely not. But the beat is really not that bad. I think that track will grow on people overtime.

NYSOM3 however... terrible all around, possibly the worst song he's made from the HB run to this album. Premo is getting all the blame for the execution of that beat (deservedly so), but I gotta keep it real... Nas' verses were very subpar and dont match the standards he's set for a NYSOM track, let alone some of the best tracks from his recent work. This track alone really kills the album for me.

Right now this is how I'd rank LY:

KD3
Magic
KD2 (Better production/worse rapping than LY)
LY
Magic 2 (Very underrated. This album has no skips IMO)
Magic 3 (outside of Speechless 2/Jodeci I really don't go back to this album...)
KD1

 

[Spidey Man]

2 weeks in and still in the 4-4 1/2 mic range.

I only got KD3 and Magic above and on the same level as KD2. If they come back and do a sequel, I expect it to make the same jump as KD2 did following the original.

 

[mson]

Nas is for the children.

 

[Ziggiy]

Album review coming soon…