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

[perfectblack999]

The 1st three tracks thru me off .By NYSTOM Pt3 i almost had a heart attack

Album picked up a bit on Welcome to the Underground (i love this track).
As far as concepts though, Nas delivered in abundance....
Favs....Writers, Welcome to the Underground, Junkie, Nasty Esco Nasir, 3rd Childhood (lazy recycled chorus from Premo though)
This aint knocking down any of Nas & Hitboy albums except maybe Magic2 ..even M2 had higher highs than those here.
Magic - KD2 - KD3 - Magic3 are light years ahead of this album
This is not cracking my top 10-12 Nas albums.

Spoiler

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Premo fckd up

same thing I was thinking. Magic 2 is the only album close to this

 

[HNIC973]

So is Premo a producer you get for like 2 amazing standouts on your album? But not the whole album

At this point maybe 6 or 7. The album is pretty great when Writers hits. Like I said it met my expectations

 

[Ellen Degeneres]

Jeru The Damaja would low key crush most of these beats

 

[prophecypro]

Not at all

Saying it’s worse than Nasir is egregious

At least he’s rapping with purpose and the beats still work.

People gonna keep pulling that and Nastradamus with any latest album he puts like a scorching take but there’s nothing wild like Big Girl on here

 

[Tetris v2.0]

Nas really has a wild catalog

I don't think I'm able to put anything post Life Is Good, in the same list as the albums leading up to it - it doesn't feel right to compare them, the Hit stuff with like I Am etc...

It's like he's had 2-3 different major eras

This album, to me, is him circling back to the original run with the references, sequels, AZ feature and of course Premo

This really feels like his fan service album, and on that front I feel like he mostly fully delivered

I'll share my critique on Premier in another post, need to gather my thoughts a bit more. I think he did a good job here. It's mechanically the same as it always was, but I can't shake the overly "clean" sound his beats have now...

 

[L. Deezy]

Now everybody Hit Boy fans. Smh..

Social Media such a weird spot. People will skim an album as fast as possible to give a take. Then will say stuff like he didn't shout out Nicki on Bouquet. Sheesh. He did, but people won't sit with an album. Small example

Preme getting the trickle down hate. A few will say the beats not good and then it snowballs into a thing. Preme did a phenomenal job

 

[bigdaddy88]

yep, the sound is what i expected not great album of first listen but not by any means

middle tier off one listen , some beats lacked aggressiveness

 

[ItWasWritten]

Writing full album reviews, ranking discographies, on an album that hasn't been out but 8 hours is ridiculous to me - If positive you probably too much a Stan, if negative you probably too much a hater - You gotta let shyt breathe at least a fews days

Anyway

Stand outs to me ATM

MadMan
Pause Tapes
Sons
It's Time
My Story Your Story

Some of the beats off of first few listens.... I just don't understand what Preem is doing - Welcome to Underground sound like something
cowboy redneck nikkaz would line dance too

NYSOM3 - Abysmal
3rd Childhood - Phoned in

Just underwhelming ... even on the songs I like

idk, I'll keep listening

 

[Ellen Degeneres]

At this point maybe 6 or 7. The album is pretty great when Writers hits. Like I said it met my expectations

I believe that's the real conversation about this album, whether it meets expectations or not. Because it's not trash. Some people expect 18 tracks of Illmatic, which it's not supposed to be. It's a lot better than the Reason/Roc Marciano stuff. But yeah I wish Premier threw a few of those Moment of Truth/Ownerz type joints on here. Like Royalty off Moment of Truth, for some reason he just stopped going for that kind of complexity.

 

[Tommy Fits]

Only 3 tracks in but I'm loving this. Yeah NYSOM 3 is a little weird because it's nothing like the first two but it's still a good song, dark menacing beat. I'm on Welcome to the Underground, that's the first beat thats ehh. But if Nas spits like this the rest of the album he's cemented his GOAT status

 

[Artfull Dodger]

Junkie is excellent

the execution and flow well on point. great track

 

[Tetris v2.0]

Premier did a better job on here than the Roc and Ransom projects, and even the Gang Starr project from 7-8 years ago - and it's not even close IMO

I wish he was as sharp as Pete Rock seems to be again, but compare Preem to his other peers from back then - who else is doing it like this aside from Pete?

He ain't making dust blunt beats with the S950 anymore lol it is what it is

 

[Ziggiy]

Im not a fan if Dj Premier like that. Nas is my favorite but this shyt is too Ny centric for me.

You must HATE Illmatic then…

 

[toetoe]

Any MOP scratches on the album

 

[NormanConnors]

Now everybody Hit Boy fans. Smh..

Social Media such a weird spot. People will skim an album as fast as possible to give a take. Then will say stuff like he didn't shout out Nicki on Bouquet. Sheesh. He did, but people won't sit with an album. Small example

Preme getting the trickle down hate. A few will say the beats not good and then it snowballs into a thing. Preme did a phenomenal job

Facts on all of this