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

[Ziggiy]

Gotta give Joe his props. I thought he was going to turn the Nas & Preme interview into a chatty patty, unprepared, mess, but he did an actual great job.

Its the best interview he’s ever conducted.

 

[The Dust King]

See verses here for an example even though it seems you are pissed AF

Nas-death-row-east-lyrics
Nas-and-dj-premier-madman-lyrics

second verse here too

Here's my Galactican citizenship card / Interplanetary mission, I've been discharged to hit y'all

Playing into the “Light-Years” science and space travel theme for the album, Nas has Battlestar Galactica references if he were to reintroduce hip hop in human society and culture to another planet, and also as a nod to his Hip Hop museum collaboration to commemorate all the graffiti artists as...

genius.com

First verse here

Nas & DJ Premier – My Life Is Real

[Intro: Nas & Benny the Butcher] / What a life / "It's true that they underestimate you" / My life is real / So I'm frontin' on 'em every chance I get to be honest / [Verse 1: Nas

genius.com

first verse here

Nas & DJ Premier – GiT Ready

[Intro: Nas] / Get ready / Yo, Preem, give me that turnaround / Yeah, that's it / [Verse 1: Nas] / Jesus, the king out of Queensbridge / Αt ease us with your lyrical thesis / Me

genius.com

Dude is annoying to me...if you like it good for you, i'm not revisiting this anymore.

1. death row east = rolex 3 mentions

2. madman = mercedes = 1, gucci = 1

3. writers = clarks = 1

4. life is real = toyota = 1

5. git ready = mercedes = 1, nvidia = 1, ethereum = 1, vvs = 1, moet = 1

 

[Piff Perkins]

I highly doubt you're 15 years younger than me. That would mean you weren't even born when IWW dropped, lol.

But the point is, this record is aimed at a certain era and listener. So if you're saying "it's not good", you're speaking to the quality of the music. But for those of us who it speaks to, it's perfect and we love it. So that's when it's kinda time to just accept that this kinda music just isn't being made for you. It's for us. That doesn't mean the music "isn't good". It means you just don’t like it. And that's okay.

Nobody cares about Hit Boy. This is about an album made by two GOAT's. Premier has been killing sh*t since '88-'89. We are not going to start throwing random beat makers in talks with the best producer of all-time. Nah. Premier has made a lot of dope sh*t over the past 2-3 years. The kinda sh*t that people wanted Nas to rap over. But that's not what Nas wanted for this album. What he wanted for it, is what he sat and made with Preem. Premier makes beats on the spot at the direction of the MC and for what they want to say. He's not going to dig in a stash of 30 year old beats and tell Nas "This is probably what the people online want to hear you on. Try these". LOL!!

Nobody thinks Hit is in the same category as Premo. My point is that when Hit was using sample packs the "real hip hop" crew were clowning him. When Premo uses them nobody says shyt. And frankly? I'd take 20 plus producers or beat makers over Premo when it comes to sample pack usage including Hit Boy. That's not his bag. Just like sampling records isn't Hit's bag. So why are we pretending like this is an old school record across the board when it's not? Nobody has been able to answer this. I am not trolling. I respect you. I dap your shyt all the time! I'm just saying you can't tell me Writers or Sons are some old school beat. It literally sounds like generic "NY 90s rap" sample pack shyt. And when I was bringing this up before Polo confirmed it people were calling me a conspiracy theorist.

For those unfamiliar with this shyt...go to youtube and look up 90s rap sample packs. Look up Marco Polo's sample packs on bandcamp. And then listen to the album and tell me I'm wrong.


Come on man.

 

[The Dust King]

Facts.

A lot of this sounds like Preem's sh*t from '91. The night we heard the joint, somebody said the approach sounded a lot like "Precisely The Right Rhymes" from Step In The Arena. And we were all like...

That's why I say, if you're a true Gang Starr or Preem fan, you know he hasn't strayed from what he's always done. But a lot of people only know "Nas Is Like", and haven't f*cked with enough of Preem's catalogue.

FACTS

now whos gonna take the weight?

top 5 nas album, top 5 gangstarr album

best album of the year

idgaf if you grew up under wbls antenna or you made ya own pause tapes

only toys would disagree

 

[Awesome Wells]

Yeah, I can definitely see where the disconnect is coming from. For years, when people thought about a Nas/Premier album, they thought about it sounding like "N.Y. State of Mind" or "Come Get Me." Something more bombastic, more musical, in the same vein as those songs. But this is another one of those cases where Nas went left when everyone thought he would go right. A lot of people hate "Welcome to the Underground," but it's just rap rock. "Pause Tapes" is exactly the kind of rap song that you would make back then. BDP had a lot of beats that were minimalist. "Ya Slippin'" is literally just KRS rapping over "Smoke on the Water," but it's still one of the hardest songs on the album. Same as "The Rebel" from In Control, Vol. 1. It's Tragedy rapping over a guitar sample and some drums. It's not like Premier was trying to remake Yeezus. He was just aiming for that late 80s/early 90s sound.

You mentioned earlier that Nas and Premier referred to the album as some "Just-Ice shyt." And then I think about "Self-Destruction" and Just-Ice's verse on it. D-Nice added some other elements to it depending on who was rapping (like using "Funky Drummer" during Chuck D's verse), but the beat itself has a lot of space and is simple enough for anyone to rap over. There's definitely a lot of space on this album.

Truth.

I like what you said about the BDP thing because I told my boy that "Pause Tapes" reminds me A LOT of "Poetry" from Criminal Minded. That sound that we used to go crazy for back in the day, as kids. That's what they said they wanted this project to be. And they came through on that.

A few months ago, when they played us the unfinished demos for the album, and the beats were basically bare bones, I remember I was telling you I was like "WTF is this sh*t? Where's the rest of the beat? Nah, this is weak". HAHA! That's when they told us the concept and said to just chill and wait for the finished versions. They had to add more sh*t and refine the sound. So by the second listen, we were all like..

 

[The Dust King]

"NY 90s rap" sample pack shyt.

preem pretty much invented that sound so what are we talkin about here?

record...loop......record....loop

rhetorical, the answer is nothing, you just another fake 90s lover.

 

[Awesome Wells]

FACTS

now whos gonna take the weight?

top 5 nas album, top 5 gangstarr album

best album of the year

idgaf if you grew up under wbls antenna or you made ya own pause tapes

only toys would disagree

Reality!

Definitely a Top 5 Nas album. I haven't stopped playing it since Friday. I'm hearing something new and dope in it, with every listen. They really did their thing on this project. But like I keep saying, these dudes don’t know nothing about no BLS, lol. This joint ain't for them.

All the references on here took me right back to the era in the way that Preem said they wanted it to. That means they really got the job done on this album.

 

[Supa]

To be fair I have too much respect for Marco Polo to call him some white boy. He's a legend, I respect him. My issue is twofold. I vividly remember nikkas clowning Hit Boy for sample packs during the KD run. Especially when he'd have horns in tracks. I vividly remember Pete Rock laughing about the sound being an imitation of the real thing. Even on this forum there was discussion about it. Can't remember the track but Hit Boy sampled a very basic, super common pack for one of the horns and dudes gave him a lot of shyt for it.

I don't fukk with most sample packs, which is why I can't stand a lot of modern Griselda shyt (Beat Butcha). I will say when it comes to white boys, Alchemist and Jake One have good drum kits. But it gets to my second issue: I don't think the sound translates well in a lot of rap music because it sounds static and lifeless. It rarely sounds like musicians are naturally jamming and being recorded - instead it sounds like guys are standing around playing what they think will work for rap. It's very glaring on this album. Like that AZ track where it seems like they're trying to interpolate/riff off some Nautilus type shyt and it just sounds lame as fukk. That's a Polo sample pack btw.

I don't like heavy use of sample packs. It's never going to have the same feel as an actual sample especially with something like horns.

I said when this album was announced that Nas can't be cheap and has to pay for sample clearances if he wants to make the best album possible. If sampling was mostly off the table of course the the reaction to the production would be mixed. It's reminiscent of the Griselda album on Shady where the beats were too barebones and missed most of what made their sound interesting.

 

[JoelB]

Gotta give Joe his props. I thought he was going to turn the Nas & Preme interview into a chatty patty, unprepared, mess, but he did an actual great job.

Its the best interview he’s ever conducted.

Every Joe interview i've seen he's been pretty accommodating to the artists. Almost too much. Like a black Zane Lowe....does he have one where he's wylin out?

 

[TheDarceKnight]

Nas wanted to put Em on Daughters but Eminem said he had done so much Hailey bars he didn't want to go back to that well.

Thank god

 

[Awesome Wells]

Been try'na tell y'all.

 

[theflyest]

This interview better than the album

 

[Piff Perkins]

I don't like heavy use of sample packs. It's never going to have the same feel as an actual sample especially with something like horns.

I said when this album was announced that Nas can't be cheap and has to pay for sample clearances if he wants to make the best album possible. If sampling was mostly off the table of course the the reaction to the production would be mixed. It's reminiscent of the Griselda album on Shady where the beats were too barebones and missed most of what made their sound interesting.

You're the perfect person to speak on it as a Griselda fan. I don't know anybody who fukks with those Beat Butcha tracks. Sure the first one was cool. But after Dr. Birds his beats have literally been imitating that sound nonstop. It's like a child sitting on piano keys and rocking back and forth.

The problem with sample packs is that you get a bunch of session musicians in a room and they start playing shyt they think could be sampled. It's not a real jam section in most cases. So you get really slow music that has no rhythm or groove to it. And then you get slow rap records. The other side of the coin...you get really good musicians who are just replicating a sound. That's why I don't fukk with Adrian Younge's shyt. Yes he makes jazz albums I love. But when producers (including Premo) sample his fake 1970s imitation shyt it sounds wack. Because there is no real rhythm to it. You can't just imitate Motown and call it a day. It's impossible.

 

[MikeStamina]

Have been listening to this album nonstop since Friday. The production here is so good. I'm really loving this album.

Noooo...You Lying
Straight Coping Mechanism
You really wanna unplug Primo's turntables
Keep it honest

 

[MrFettuccinnePockets]

This shyt is mid.

I love Nas too but cmon yall. Lol