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

[L. Deezy]

Some of y’all should be embarrassed to call yourselves MEN. There is NO WAY the comments posted on this thread come from mature adults with families or an employment history.

Bruh... no bullshyt.

 

[((ReFleXioN)) EteRNaL]

HB doesn't only use sample packs. He definitely does use them, but he samples legit existing songs as well.

And even guys like Madlib and Conductor Williams have both dipped into sample packs the past few years. If it sounds dope, it sounds dope.

Now, if you just don't think most of Hit-Boy's stuff sounds dope, then that's fair. But I think he gets too much flack for the sample pack stuff.

I don't mind using sample packs. Just saying I understand why some of his "sampled" beats felt so empty. Cause they were really just loops made to emulate the oldies sound. But when you use sample packs you should at least use some effects and mix them to give them a more authentic sound. It seems like hit just takes the loop, chops it, puts some weak ass drums over it and calls it a day.

But even his real sampled stuff I'm not a big fan of. I think his chopping style is a bit erratic and all over the place at times. Like they feel on beat and off beat at the same time. He's not just a great producer to me.

 

[mson]

 

[spliz]

I like this so much more from Writers to the end.

I'm trying to be less let down by the beats on here. Again, I wasn't expecting Primo in his prime, but cot damn, I really thought at least 1 or 2 Primo/Nas beats would've ended up in my top 10 favorite beats of 2025, and not a single beat on the album is a top 10 beat for me this year.

These are seriously some of Nas' best rapping and concepts. The soundscapes just aren't there for me.

I think NYSOM Pt 3 and Welcome To The Underground fukk up the flow of the shyt so early on.

 

[TV]

Hip Hop doesn't deserve Nas and this album added to the list why. Everyone has their opinions but to say this album is bad is laughable. There were missteps in the beginning. Although I like My Life is Real, Welcome to the Underground is exactly the opposite of underground. Maybe they were trying to capture some of the earlier times of Hip Hop with that sound?

 

[HiiiPower]

Hip Hop doesn't deserve Nas and this album added to the list why. Everyone has their opinions but to say this album is bad is laughable. There were missteps in the beginning. Although I like My Life is Real, Welcome to the Underground is exactly the opposite of underground. Maybe they were trying to capture some of the earlier times of Hip Hop with that sound?

Weird Post

Hip hop doesn’t deserve Nas just because a lot of people are not liking the production…but everyone is entitled to their opinion…unless it’s negative of course, in which case it’s laughable.

you can absolutely say you think this is the worst Nas album while still respecting him as the GOAT

 

[spliz]

Yo I just tried to listen to Tom Ford again and dead ass no lie the first 40 seconds of that song sounds gay AF. Lol

 

[ThirdAct]

Yo I just tried to listen to Tom Ford again and dead ass no lie the first 40 seconds of that song sounds gay AF. Lol

Beat sounds like a bunch of Star Wars aliens twerking or some shyt

 

[Budda]

Yes to me. Great songwriting should be able to appeal to a worldwide audience. Nas has tried MANY of times to do that and failed. That's just a fact. He tried desperately to cross over. Then when he couldn't he dropped this cope


"Making hits is easy.
Put a famous bytch on the hook
there you go with a platinum CD"


This was 100% sour grapes on nas's part. He knows making hits isn't easy. Even with a "famous bytch". It takes a very special talent to make worldwide rap HITS. Nas was never that guy. Kendrick is far more versatile with the pen. You're telling me gun to your head if you needed Nas or Kendrick to make a song that charts top 10 worldwide. I don't care what the beat is. You're gonna give it to Nas?....let's be serious here. Kendrick is just in a different league as an all around song writer. And yes. Song writing is apart of lyricism.

Making hits is as much about marketing and placing as it is about songwriting. For example Replace Me on his first album is a hit if he switches Big Sean with Drake, Spicy is a hit if he switches Fivio Foreign with Cardi B, it’s that simple sometimes.

 

[Budda]

The truth is somewhere in the middle.

Being able to make dense, complex lyricism palatable for the masses IS a skill, something that Biggie and Jay are probably the GOATs at. Nas' limitations with this has always been pretty exaggerated...but he is Hit Or Miss at it; for every If I Ruled The World he has a Dr. Knockboot, a lot of "Whut da hell is a Polar Bear doin in Arlington, Texas???" moments...dont make me run back the "Nas has weird sex bars" thread

Like somebody brought up You Owe Me but like...that nikka had reparation bars on a hook about Getting Head for ice, that's some "p*ssy tighter than the conditions of us black folks" level of and not in a "See hes kicking deep shyt on a commercial record" way but just a total nonsequitir, "Not reading the room" shyt; a conscious rapper caught in unfamiliar territory. A polar bear in Arlington Texas lol

Of course, Nas' strengths are so strong that it makes it a moot point, but it is a leg up that Kendrick has on him.

It doesn’t matter about it he has repetition bars on a song like that, if anytbing thats the genius in it all, in that even in a dance song he can still drop a bit of knowledge without it scari BG off the intended audience(which is women) i give praise to Kendrick for this as well.

It’s just a punchline and frankly it makes sense because it’s one of the more quotable lines on the song, regardless of that You Owe Me has no doubt stood the test of time, my nieces and little sister who are younger than 21 all love that song and it came out in 2000.

 

[Cladyclad]

Yo I just tried to listen to Tom Ford again and dead ass no lie the first 40 seconds of that song sounds gay AF. Lol

Maybe because you are gay

 

[Overpss]

Magna Carta > Light Years

 

[Budda]

Yo I just tried to listen to Tom Ford again and dead ass no lie the first 40 seconds of that song sounds gay AF. Lol

It’s so wack, people actually think creating hits isn’t a lot to do with marketing and aligning yourself with the right rappers producers and labels/Djs.

Nas can make songs that would be hits with other rappers quite easily, we’ve both made the point about Spicy and Replace Me these are hits with just a couple replacements in features, but it’s obvious Nas ain’t chasing it.

If he was he would have already made songs with Drake and Kendrick and J Cole, it’s that simple. The amount of songs he has made which could be way more successful if he just replaced the singer on the hook with a notable star, or pushed it as one.

You won’t see me tonight is an example, You Wouldn’t Understand with another singer apart from a at the time unknown Victoria Monet is another example.

 

[Budda]

Maybe because you are gay

Call someone gay for not liking a song about a gay fashion designer brehs.

 

[Cladyclad]

Call someone gay for not liking a song about a gay fashion designer brehs.

You must be gay to speaking up for another man