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

[Regular_P]

Anybody got some mustard?

Still waiting on the physical.

 

[THE 101]

That is part of production

When the beats are banging ain't no one talking about how the rapper has room to breathe

 

[New Jeruzalem Journalist]

I zoned out to this shyt after blazing up and sat under a bridge overlooking a creak at 2AM. I love this album. The legends delivered


In 2025 we got a Nas album entirely produced by DJ Premier, where Nas is shouting out and name dropping the likes of COPE2, Cornbread, DONDI, Tame One, Bernadette Price, Bahamadia, and Rah Digga.



Maaaaaaaaaaan, listen...

 

[FunkDoc1112]

Went and listened to 2nd CHildhood and yeah, going from that (which is stylistically a lot like most of this album) to this, it is absolutely engineering holding this album back. It's like there's no reverb, which makes everything sound clean in the bad way - y'know how like, modern Studio audience shows look way cheaper in HD than the 90s shows? Same thing here, and it makes for a more hollow feeling where all the sounds are fighting each other and there's not much bottom. And some of that's on Premo too - NYSOM3 has wayyyy to much empty space in the loop.

Obviously since I make beats I'm way more granular with this stuff now, but I can literally listen to NYSOM3 and immediately diagnose how it could be better lmao.

 

[mc_brew]

uh..... NaS rapped his åss off on this one...

musically, this is different... i'm going to have to sit with this one... the rapping might carry it....

so far, these are the ones i liked the most...
my life is real, git ready, writers, it's time, junkie, shine together, 3rd childhood.....

i didn't like the overall composition of bouquet (to the ladies) but NaS flowed lyrical and i loved how he shouted out all the female rappers, including sweet tee, conscious daughters, heather b, and nonchalant <-- those four are so overlooked, i'm amazed he knew of them -- he really did his research...

my first impression is musically this is not what i'd expect from NaS... lyrically, he stepped up... 4 stars on first listen.....

edit: i can understand people not liking it, it is different... but on second listen this sounds better than first listen.....

out!

 

[Soymuscle Mike]

I will say this, I hate "Welcome to the Underground"

That beat is just so offputting, I'm not even paying attention to Nas because my brain is trying to catch up to whatever Preme is doing with that beat and it's not clicking at all. It's a beat that is trying to be a beat but never quite getting there, and not in the good STROKE OF DEATH kind of way.

On second listen I still fukks with everything else. NYSOM3 has a hook that I keep to but then whenever that beat kicks in again I'm super into it and loving it.

 

[waynep]

Bouquet is the one... Put together a good treatment and shoot a video for it. The song has Viral potential.

 

[summwunn]

Light years is a phenomenol album. I follow Nas. Been following him since 1996.

I am for his life's philosophy.

There are themes of legacy, love, truth, success.

And being proud of dressing like a hip hopper.

I work, but on my off days I always wear baggy clothes and sneakers. I always did that.

Some dudes grew up and criticize it now. Thousands online.....prolly cause they could never rock it right lol

What an album.

Shouts out Tame One.

New York State of Mind three destroyed me.

I was like cool - they cleared a Bully Joel sample, Nas is clearing samples and letting Premier take control.....very New York to have Joel. Then boom, the beat dropped!

I paused it, got up and just kept saying "holy shyt!" With a big grin on my face.

Pt 1, 2, and 3 are all perfect.

They know what they're doing when they hit that pocket.

Excellent job to Premier and Nas on Light Years!!!!!

BAN THIS TOY ALREADY

 

[Slim Charles]

Went and listened to 2nd CHildhood and yeah, going from that (which is stylistically a lot like most of this album) to this, it is absolutely engineering holding this album back. It's like there's no reverb, which makes everything sound clean in the bad way - y'know how like, modern Studio audience shows look way cheaper in HD than the 90s shows? Same thing here, and it makes for a more hollow feeling where all the sounds are fighting each other and there's not much bottom. And some of that's on Premo too - NYSOM3 has wayyyy to much empty space in the loop.

Obviously since I make beats I'm way more granular with this stuff now, but I can literally listen to NYSOM3 and immediately diagnose how it could be better lmao.

This very much my feeling too. The production feels like it’s made for a Netflix series about 90s hip hop where it has the fundamentals but is too clean and inorganic to hit like it should.

It’s still a really solid album and I think the sequencing early on also fukks things up. Git ready is a bad choice for the second song. Like so bad. Should’ve been 3/4 through to lighten things up. Instead you have a good intro then Git Ready then you’re all hyped to hear NYSOM3 and it isn’t what you expect. So you’re already on track 4 and you’re thrown off

 

[Budda]

Exactly what I predicted.

 

[Makavalli]

Yep I Like Junkies ALOT

one of my favs

First listen i like the album and junkies hooked me like The Truth did on Magic. Im listening in my headphones at work but this needs the whip and gym test

 

[Crumple]

BAN THIS TOY ALREADY

Ma ice, ma chain, mai wautch!

 

[Budda]

I agree with this 100%. I prefer albums to be short so 10-12 songs max. Junkie is the only song I wasn't feeling at all. Even conceptually that song didn't feel fully fleshed out.

I don't feel like this is Nas at his best. It's not Premier at his best. That's okay because I'm wasn't expecting that at their age. If they did this album in 1998-2002 it would be far superior. I'm still happy with it and on first listen it's 4/5. I said it wouldn't surpass the De La album and it didn't. Cabin in the Sky is still album of the year to me. Pos is still lyricist of the year.

With Nas I don't feel like he has those poetic/stream of consciousness verses like It Ain't Hard to Tell, Verbal Intercourse, or Take it in Blood in him anymore. I've felt that way for years not just now which is why there's other rappers I listen to way more than Nas now. He doesn't do the detailed story telling like Shootouts. He's a lot more direct now. You can see that in New York State of Mind 3. It's nowhere near as descriptive as 1 & 2. I wish he would've pushed himself to get back to that. He kind of makes up for those flaws by leaning into concepts. That kept me engaged especially on Writers. Loved that he shouted out Sane and Smith whose tags I used to see all over my neighborhood when I was a kid.

Premier surprised me in that there aren't a lot of stereotypical sounding Premier beats on here. They sound different. It's not really a good or bad thing because the production is good there's just not that 1 beat that hits like his best stuff. There's no Full Clip or Mass Appeal. Madman was where things started to come together and the beats went on a nice run.

Only 1 listen so I may get into this more but I'm happy they finally gave us something. Should've have happened way sooner though.

If Nas makes another album I want it to be Pete Rock. His work is just more melodic than Premier while still being boom bap and I think that what Nas needs to be at his best. Next would be Q Tip followed by Alchemist.

Should be Alchemist and Alchemist only, leave all these golden age producers thet ain’t making beats that wow us anymore, look forward not backwards.

 

[Crumple]

Went and listened to 2nd CHildhood and yeah, going from that (which is stylistically a lot like most of this album) to this, it is absolutely engineering holding this album back. It's like there's no reverb, which makes everything sound clean in the bad way - y'know how like, modern Studio audience shows look way cheaper in HD than the 90s shows? Same thing here, and it makes for a more hollow feeling where all the sounds are fighting each other and there's not much bottom. And some of that's on Premo too - NYSOM3 has wayyyy to much empty space in the loop.

Obviously since I make beats I'm way more granular with this stuff now, but I can literally listen to NYSOM3 and immediately diagnose how it could be better lmao.

Do you have a link to your production? I'm interested in hearing it.

 

[Crumple]

I zoned out to this shyt after blazing up and sat under a bridge overlooking a creak at 2AM. I love this album. The legends delivered


In 2025 we got a Nas album entirely produced by DJ Premier, where Nas is shouting out and name dropping the likes of COPE2, Cornbread, DONDI, Tame One, Bernadette Price, Bahamadia, and Rah Digga.



Maaaaaaaaaaan, listen...

That's a hardcore way to listen to the album. Daps.

I put on quality headphones and listened to it straight forward.

It's too important of an album to listen to it distracted.