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

[Awesome Wells]

I also want to hear sharper writing. There's been some rambling in Nas verses to me ever since SD. I always think about that line on one of the Life Is Good songs where he said "my man Dion (No ID) says Nas overthinks the songs he's writing." Seems clear that was a producer giving him some legit constructive criticism while crafting an album. Sometimes he goes on tangents or gets way off topic randomly, where it feels like the writing just isn't as sharp as it once was.

That's what Nore said he asked Nas when they did "Triple Threat" with Nature. Nature murdered everybody on that one.

He said he asked Nas what he was talking about in his second verse, and Nas was like, "I don’t even know." HAHA!!

 

[Piff Perkins]

Eddie Sancho wasn't the engineer on the Ransom one. Nef and Parks did it. But he mixed Alfredo 2. Guess what album sound the best ?

My bad, I forgot Parks said he did the Ran project. But Sancho has done virtually everything else Premo has dropped recently, and is almost certainly engineering the Nas album.

 

[Mike the Executioner]

I also want to hear sharper writing. There's been some rambling in Nas verses to me ever since SD. I always think about that line on one of the Life Is Good songs where he said "my man Dion (No ID) says Nas overthinks the songs he's writing." Seems clear that was a producer giving him some legit constructive criticism while crafting an album. Sometimes he goes on tangents or gets way off topic randomly, where it feels like the writing just isn't as sharp as it once was.

Hit Boy is more of a beat maker than producer so I'm not sure how much coaching he was doing in the booth. But we know Premo does that a loooot. Including having Nas re-do vocals on the last track they officially released before Define My Name (the break beats track).

Nas spoke on that famously in his Breakfast Club interview. Angela Yee asked him about his writing process and he said that Hit-Boy helped break him out of that overthinking mindset. They could be having a conversation about something and Hit-Boy would be like "That sounds like a bar. Say that. The mic's right there, say that. Stop telling me about your ex screaming at you on the phone last night, get in the booth and say that."

We know what it sounds like when Nas is forced to rush things (Nasir). From what I've seen and read, Hit-Boy encouraged Nas to be more confident in his pen game. I know he was worried about "Car #85" because it sounded too New York, and he felt like "Beef" was a rehash of "I Gave You Power." Even with The Lost Tapes II, Nas didn't know how people would feel about the Pete Rock tracks. He called Hit-Boy his Quincy Jones for a reason. He's never said that about any producer he's worked with (to my knowledge).

I'm not trying to do tricks on it, I'm just saying that Hit-Boy deserves the credit he gets for keeping Nas motivated.

 

[Supa]

That's what Nore said he asked Nas when they did "Triple Threat" with Nature. Nature murdered everybody on that one.

He said he asked Nas what he was talking about in his second verse, and Nas was like, "I don’t even know." HAHA!!

He did that on the Clipse album. That verse had no direction whatsoever. He wasted their time with that.

 

[Prolific_1011]

He did that on the Clipse album. That verse had no direction whatsoever. He wasted their time with that.

Clipse wasted the opportunity. It was essentially a corny beat they were too scared to decline from Pharrel and so they decided to have Nas rhyme on it in order to save it. That beat wasn't good enough for Nas to spend his time on.

 

[Mike the Executioner]

Clipse wasted the opportunity. It was essentially a corny beat they were too scared to decline from Pharrel and so they decided to have Nas rhyme on it in order to save it. That beat wasn't good enough for Nas to spend his time on.

Yeah, unless Nas was given specific directions on what to talk about and he didn't follow them, I don't think it's a waste of time. It was a completely different beat that might as well have been an interlude. They could have just lopped it off and put it on the album by itself.

 

[kes929]

He did that on the Clipse album. That verse had no direction whatsoever. He wasted their time with that.

Played that song in the car today and it went crazy. Floated on that joint too me and the beat knocks too. To each own though .

 

[The Dust King]

I remember when you first said the bolded in this thread. I thought, "this nikka's crazy."

But I think that was before this Legend Has It Nas feature run, where I'd say that Nas is in even better form than during the Hitboy run. And Premier's production this year, while not quite at the level I'd want it to be, is some of his best stuff in a while (e.g. RocMarkable). Assuming Premier's saving his best for this Nas album, I'm starting to think you're less crazy than when you first said this.

Damn you, lol.

Had no expectations when this album was announced, because I knew they were trying to do the impossible. shyt is damn near Detox status.

yea this was summer time last year i said this

i have held back on the details because i dont want to spoil anything

i had a notepad that day and i took down wild details

i got to hear the wutang multiple times, but nas only once

 

[The Dust King]

eddie sancho does a lotta ALs stuff too

@Piff Perkins @Awesome Wells

and al and primo been all up in the hitboy sessions

 

[HNIC973]

If you can fully articulate why you don't like something that's not hate it's criticism.

Y'all love something then enter threads expecting them to be an echo chamber. It doesn't work like that.



I'm now extremely nervous about this album

You've articulated it plenty times in threads no need to rehash it. HB has produced some of Nas best shyt since LIG imo you can disagree

 

[Supa]

You've articulated it plenty times in threads no need to rehash it. HB has produced some of Nas best shyt since LIG imo you can disagree

If the praise can be rehashed so can the criticism

You already know this will be revisited in December because the comparisons are going to happen.

 

[Prolific_1011]

yea this was summer time last year i said this

i have held back on the details because i dont want to spoil anything

i had a notepad that day and i took down wild details

i got to hear the wutang multiple times, but nas only once

Props to @The Dust King for the info. I love this type of insider stuff. The positive info is also a good counter against some of the debbie downers on here.

I'm hyped for the album. I think they are going to deliver a classic (No Jinx). In the RollingStone interview Nas said, "I can't wait for fans to hear it". Nas is always low key on any info before his albums drop, so for him to say that...

Also, Preme has tweeted when asked about the album. He has called it, "Special". That's all I need to know.

And the HitBoy hate is ridiculous. The 6 albums with Hitboy, on their own, are better than some of your favorite rappers' discographies. I haven't heard a better album than KD3 since it dropped.

 

[kes929]

Props to @The Dust King for the info. I love this type of insider stuff. The positive info is also a good counter against some of the debbie downers on here.

I'm hyped for the album. I think they are going to deliver a classic (No Jinx). In the RollingStone interview Nas said, "I can't wait for fans to hear it". Nas is always low key on any info before his albums drop, so for him to say that...

Also, Preme has tweeted when asked about the album. He has called it, "Special". That's all I need to know.

And the HitBoy hate is ridiculous. The 6 albums with Hitboy, on their own, are better than some of your favorite rappers' discographies. I haven't heard a better album than KD3 since it dropped.

It’s almost impossible to not like atleast some of those hit boy albums. Some people are pretty narrow minded so I’m not surprised.

 

[theflyest]

In reality i believe Preemo has prepared for this moment, he knows what the stakes are when it comes to producing a full project for the GOAT, he's been READY and in reality it's on Nas to come through as well with the subject matter. If he is resonating with his audience and do what he's best at STORYTELLING i think more than anything people will overlook the few production "Flaws" on preemo and lift the weight off him. Pretty much a "life is good" type of album will have the board going instead of believing he needs to re-do one of his classics from the 90s. This will def hold its own if it's on subject matter route

I don’t think Primo is ready.

 

[InstantKlassik]

This thread is so depressing

You nikkas are the worst