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

Rasille

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This album has grown on me

Nas is the most overly critiqued rapper of all time
And Premo is the most overly critiqued producer of all time
Heavy is the head that wears the crown. With Nas it’s either the most amazing project ever or it’s the worst project ever. No in between.
 

ArchStanton

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@Ziggiy @spliz

My guys, I'm probably in the middle of y'all. Like I love this album ..but I'm not ready to rank it over any of the Hit albums. And that includes Magic II :yeshrug:

Slow it Down, Pistols -->
To me it sits comfortably with the Hit albums. Nas is my 1B favorite rapper and I thought he was done after it took all those years to get a 7-track album from him, so the fact we got 7 albums from him since then with a high caliber of rapping and storytelling, I'm very happy.
 

Mike the Executioner

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There were multiple people on this forum who defended the Nasir album, which tells you everything you need to know about how certain people will defend anything no matter what. But a quick glance at twitter when that album came out told you everything you needed to know, if the music didn't. Nas was getting straight up clowned, the album was bad, and then we'd have people in here saying nah it's good.

It's not as pronounced now since fewer people care but the dominant Twitter reaction is that the beats are bad, Premo is washed, Nas did his thing, etc. This shyt came out and barely even made a dint on social media man. And what has been said has largely been about disappointment.

A lot of people on social media are dumb as fukk and just say things to score points with whatever the popular opinion is. I care more about what people are saying here than on Twitter.

My thing is, when people say the beats are bad, what the hell are they talking about? There's nothing on this album that's objectively terrible. I already knew where this was going to go with how much people were trashing "Define My Name," which was just a hype track meant to announce the album. The snippet of "Welcome to the Underground" was being dissected. The expectations everyone had for this were high. There are people that have been up at night for twenty years, having weird fantasies about what this album would sound like. Then it came out, and because it's not what they wanted, it's trash. It's been one day and people can't even let the music sit before coming out with wild opinions.

I loved Mr. Morale when it came out and I didn't know what people were saying about it beforehand. Turns out a lot of people didn't like it, not because it's objectively terrible, but because it wasn't what they wanted from Kendrick's first album in five years. It's not for everyone, which is fair. But saying Mr. Morale is trash or this is the worst Nas album you've ever listened to? It becomes ridiculous at some point.

I listened to some songs from the De La album and there was some great stuff there, but I couldn't get into it. Even Nas' verse sounded off to me, like I could barely hear what he was saying. I don't think I'm in the right space to take that album in, so I'm going to let it sit for a while and come back to it later. I can't say it's trash or that I don't like it. It's just not for me right now, but the Mobb Deep album is. When I'm ready, I'm going to give it a fair shot and judge it accordingly.

I've learned this lesson too many times with music. People need to let things grow on them. If you really think the album sucks, like Premier shouldn't be producing anymore, then that's cool, I guess. But if you're on the fence, then go back to it in a week or a month and see if your opinion changes instead of just writing it off after one listen.
 

NormanConnors

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isn’t this what the Coli said when Nasir dropped tho? That he just took whatever Kanye had for him? :hubie:Or is that different?
That project was rushed/mismanaged and done in a day or two, acapella pasted to instrumentals, some cats were complaining about Nas not rhyming on beat the execution was so bad. And still it seems Preem is catching more flack than Kanye:francis::comeon:. This the type of shyt to make a breh say fukk the coli
 
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My story, Your Story sounds like a posthumous collab. The back and forth doesn’t sound natural.

They definitely weren’t in the studio together recording, which is a shame because it’s a fire track, would be 5/5 if they cleaned it up.

Havoc & Prodigy’s back and
I thought it was perfect over that gritty beat and felt like a celebration of their collabs, I do think they were in the studio for it too..?
 

spliz

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NY all day..Da Stead & BK..
isn’t this what the Coli said when Nasir dropped tho? That he just took whatever Kanye had for him? :hubie:Or is that different?
Nasir was ALL Ye’s fault and for what it is I don’t think it’s HORRIBLE. But Nas didn’t even rap to them beats. Ye fukked son over big time. Lol
 
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man I first heard nas back in early 1994 when I was 16. this was after live at the bbq and what not.

and ever since songs like ny state of mind and represent, I have wanted to hear this EXACT album. decades after being teased, to see this actually come to fruition is 🤯.

and it's not like they phoned it in. they both did their thing. I don't care what anyone says. outside of guru (and perhaps jeru), there is no other rapper that primo has this level of chemistry with.

His early 2000-mid 2000s run with Blaq Poet I'd put up there chemistry wise with them. He's not the level of MC that Guru, Nas, and Jeru are, but some of my favorite Preemo joints in the past 25yrs are from his work with Poet. I'd put his work with Preem over Freddie Foxxx.
 

Tetris v2.0

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I think it's safe to say that Nas and Premo ain't doing shyt for this part of the fanbase ever again lol

This is the fan service album everyone asked for.

Premier. AZ feature. NYSOM3, 3rd Childhood, Sons. This is it. He brings an excellent and thoughtful rap performance paying tribute to the culture. It caps off a 7 album campaign that was executed very well

Heads end up bytching ad nauseum over the production...as always.

Drowning out most of the discourse around the merits of this album with pure negativity and disappointment, minutes after it released lol

I get not liking the album, completely. But the temperature with some of the feedback feels off. There's disappointment, and then there's a "blood in the water" effect and social media snowballs from there - it makes me miss when that wasn't a factor and the spaces were more... Curated.

It really feels sometimes like we get what we deserve because we don't appreciate shyt

It's a good album, maybe a great one. Not an instant classic or even close. I still don't feel like I have the right to really complain too much about what we're getting. I dunno maybe that's me lol
 
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