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

[spliz]

Mobb and De La had the best albums out the series. shyt pains me to say man.

 

[Wepa Man]

Mobb and De La had the best albums out the series. shyt pains me to say man.

Yessir

 

[Tetris v2.0]

I like this Yellow Marble variant...

 

[Piff Perkins]

All this tells me is that Pos and Maseo were not playing about their album. Guaranteed they had the heart to give Primo the while he played them something.

Roc and Ransom were just honored to be there. Can't blame em.

De La has always rapped over great beats. They also have a DJ in the group so you're not giving them a bunch of shyt no one wants to hear live.

That beat with AZ...what are we doing man. NYSOM3...what are we doing. I had reserved expectations but at least figured we'd get something similar to some of the better beats of the last few years from Premo. But NOTHING on this album matches the Griselda joint, the Ab Soul joint, etc. Closest is Git Ready. Drake got a better Premo beat than much of this.

 

[I'm Blackman]

On my 3rd listen. The album is fire.

 

[Tetris v2.0]

De La has always rapped over great beats. They also have a DJ in the group so you're not giving them a bunch of shyt no one wants to hear live.

That beat with AZ...what are we doing man. NYSOM3...what are we doing. I had reserved expectations but at least figured we'd get something similar to some of the better beats of the last few years from Premo. But NOTHING on this album matches the Griselda joint, the Ab Soul joint, etc. Closest is Git Ready. Drake got a better Premo beat than much of this.

I get the difference in production between those joints and these that you're referring to and I wonder if it's because this is a full project versus those, and the creative choices are less single driven or "Oh shyt this is my classic Premier joint" that still pops up on albums from time to time

You might agree that these are better than the Roc and Ran ones this year?

I'm not letting Premier off the hook either, I like those beats more than these but it seems like a decision was made to focus more on Nas being conceptual while those records you're referring to are the typical rapper over Premo flex type joints

Nas always avoids beats that overpower him

 

[tremonthustler1]

My humble 2 cents, Nas is my favorite rapper and inspiration. The fact that he's in his 50s and wealthy still rhyming like this is amazing. The fact that younger generations get exposed to him will only benefit them. Nas been got his flowers but he deserves more.

As far primo goes, I used to argue as a young bul that he was the best rap producer. But that was a long time ago. I honestly am not feeling these beats. I used to listen to primo songs for his beat and ignore the rapping. Here I was focusing on Nas and ignoring the beat

That's cuz there's a new crop of producers who can make dusty old school sounding beats and give you that feeling Premo used to give (not saying they're better producers overall, but they can give you that feeling). Hell, not even new since Alc still out here doing his thing, but there's a reason why all we gotta hear is the Conductor tag and we're sold. It's why I can hear whoever Westside Gunn keeps giving placements to and at least get why (Nas might need to holla at that Cee Gee producer. Let him do a beat where Premo just does the scratches, )

And that's ok. Father time is undefeated. When someone wants to hear a West Coast sounding album, there's a reason why nobody's begging people to call Dr. Dre. Now you can get that feeling from LNDN DRGS, Mike & Keys, JasonMartin, Terrace Martin, Dahi, Sounwave, Mustard, etc.

 

[thekidfromqueens]

There's an interesting post on reddit - could be talking about the reason for Premo's lack of flavor on some of his recent beats - and the claim is he is in legal trouble because of the sampling. Don't know how true it is, but y'all remember the skit on Moment of Truth where he tells everyone to stop snitching etc. with respect to samples?

 

[dubsmith_nz]

Whole album felt like a dedication to the culture and the game. Nas is rapping his ass off on the whole album, he's really in his bag with these concepts.

Second half was definitely stronger beat wise, first half had too many of those minimalist type joints Premo likes to make with Brady Watt, just a simple bass lick with some simple drums. I've never really enjoyed that style of Preems production.

"3rd Childhood", "My Story, Your Story", "Boquets", "Sons", "Junkie", "Writers", "Madman", "Shine Together", "My Life Is Real", so many fire joints on here overall. Looking forward to keeping this in rotation for a very long time.

Hell of a way to cap this Mass Appeal Legends run. Vinyl will be copped.

 

[perfectblack999]

You know what? Premo is 59. This man is damn near 60. What did we expect

Puts it into perspective

 

[thekidfromqueens]

Im shocked at how musically obtuse people are...

I WANT MY PREMIER BEATS TO SOUND LIKE MY PREMIER BEATS

Nas told you dont put him in a BOX, but yall dont REALLY listen

Imma let this sshhiitt breathe Just

I'm lookin' in Longevity's eyes
I play with Infinity's mind, Forever's my guy
My pedigree, above your ass, you'll never see I
I love the past, but see where I'm goin', I get to fly
Never sold a record for the beat, it's my verses they purchase
Without production I'm worthless
But I'm more than the surface
Want me to sound like every song on the Top 40
I'm not for you, you not for me, you bore me
I drop lines prestigious schools read to their students
Look at my album plaques, somebody agrees with the music

 

[Slim Charles]

People may take this the wrong way and say “everyone has their own idea of what a Nas/ Premo album should sound like and they shouldn’t” but an article like this framing what the album is conceptually prior to its release would have steered expectations to what this album was going to do: A tribute and love story about hip hop particularly hip hop of the late 80s and early 90s

Instead everyone has come in due to no promo of different visions for the album. Again no one should assume they’ll get what they expect but lot of negativity may have not been there if people knew “ok these guys going to do some real throwback stuff’ and if we’re being honest some of the stuff on Light Years is pre Illmatic in its influences and style

 

[DontEemTry]

My thing with these beats is...they're not even good by 90s boom bap era standards.

Let's just keep it a buck.

This is extremely far off from Preems best work

 

[I'm Blackman]

Gotta say, I’m glad I listened to this on my own for the first couple times so I could form my own opinions. Reading the initial opinions of others would have ruined my experience. This is for another thread but the expectations some people have for artists, how they listen to the music, and how they react/rate/review is unhealthy and probably needs to be studied.

I agree. I try to consume music how i did in the 90s. Listening to albums repeatedly and my circle of like 5 to 10 friends would talk about (whenever we ran into each other) and i would read an album review or 2.

Now people listen and WHILE listening discuss it in real times with others AND form and read opinions. Its a poor way to consume music but thats the result of technology. I do it to sometimes. I told myself to drop a comment or 2 and comeback to this thread in a couple of months.

 

[Cladyclad]

I'm lookin' in Longevity's eyes
I play with Infinity's mind, Forever's my guy
My pedigree, above your ass, you'll never see I
I love the past, but see where I'm goin', I get to fly
Never sold a record for the beat, it's my verses they purchase
Without production I'm worthless
But I'm more than the surface
Want me to sound like every song on the Top 40
I'm not for you, you not for me, you bore me
I drop lines prestigious schools read to their students
Look at my album plaques, somebody agrees with the music

13 years ago we agreed