Unbothered
Our Black Shining Prince 🤴🏾✨
I'll say this: I don't think the beats are that bad; they're just good.
I feel like there were extremely high expectations because it's Nas and Premier together. Hence, the assumption was that Preem was gonna go above and beyond for Nas and lace him with godly tier production reminiscent of his prime compared to the works he recently released with Ransom, Roc, etc.
To me, these beats sound more tailed for guys like Ransom, Rome Streetz, Westside Gunn, etc of that ilk would rap to, for example, to a certain extent, Madman sounds like a Grielsda Records beat, not a Premier beat, basically, this production doesn't “sound” like Premier, at least in terms of what we know of him, its like I and others have alluded to, in that if you've been following Premier production over the last 15+ years, he doesn't make beats as he did in the 90s with Gang Starr, Jeru, Group Home, Biggie, Nas, etc, etc but the assumption was that he'd tap back into that since it's Nas.
The aggressive hard-hitting drums, snares, and signature scratches, etc are gone, they're more toned down and have been for over a decade, the only record in recent memory that he was a part of that sounded close to his prime years was the last Gang Starr album which may have been leftover tracks that he simply “updated” to sound a little modern.
If any other artist were rapping to these beats, it'd be perceived differently, maybe a bit more positive but since it's Nas, the perception for many leading up to this was that it had to be “elite” tier or else it's an automatic failure because simply being “good isn't good enough” because this is Nas people are talking about, a man who many champion as one of (if not) the greatest rapper ever.
Unfortunately, for Nas, since Illmatic, he's been held to this high standard where if his beats are not on some “outta this world” level of greatness, otherwise people will say his shyt is a failure. Even if the production happens to be just good enough, it's still considered a fail because he's being held to a standard most rappers don't face.
I feel like there were extremely high expectations because it's Nas and Premier together. Hence, the assumption was that Preem was gonna go above and beyond for Nas and lace him with godly tier production reminiscent of his prime compared to the works he recently released with Ransom, Roc, etc.
To me, these beats sound more tailed for guys like Ransom, Rome Streetz, Westside Gunn, etc of that ilk would rap to, for example, to a certain extent, Madman sounds like a Grielsda Records beat, not a Premier beat, basically, this production doesn't “sound” like Premier, at least in terms of what we know of him, its like I and others have alluded to, in that if you've been following Premier production over the last 15+ years, he doesn't make beats as he did in the 90s with Gang Starr, Jeru, Group Home, Biggie, Nas, etc, etc but the assumption was that he'd tap back into that since it's Nas.
The aggressive hard-hitting drums, snares, and signature scratches, etc are gone, they're more toned down and have been for over a decade, the only record in recent memory that he was a part of that sounded close to his prime years was the last Gang Starr album which may have been leftover tracks that he simply “updated” to sound a little modern.
If any other artist were rapping to these beats, it'd be perceived differently, maybe a bit more positive but since it's Nas, the perception for many leading up to this was that it had to be “elite” tier or else it's an automatic failure because simply being “good isn't good enough” because this is Nas people are talking about, a man who many champion as one of (if not) the greatest rapper ever.
Unfortunately, for Nas, since Illmatic, he's been held to this high standard where if his beats are not on some “outta this world” level of greatness, otherwise people will say his shyt is a failure. Even if the production happens to be just good enough, it's still considered a fail because he's being held to a standard most rappers don't face.
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