Nas - Magic (Discussion Thread)

[IllmaticDelta]

Untitled makes it possible to make a TBAP

TBAP is Jazz fusion Untitled

yup

https://www.thecoli.com/threads/the...-and-how-it-was-way-ahead-of-its-time.499951/

 

[Asicz]

And Untitled was released in a different climate and took way more courage to release as a mainstream commercially viable artist on a Major label in the late 2000s than now in the Black Lives Matter era.

a couple years before the Black Lives Matter era started Rappers for a moment were shying away from race topics and even journalist on sites media like Complex

 

[FunkDoc1112]

But narrative is just that a narrative.
And anybody get run with a narrative regardless if accuracy.

And with Nastradamus a narrative was promoted with Takover and people online got carried away years later

The real revision that guy and you claimed just that people are saying Nastradamas is a perfect album. No.

But I and others found worthwhile songs on there at time of release and after

There was production from all-time greats Havoc and Dame Grease to Timbaland
The album production list involvement from all-time producers in Rap just doesn't equal the narrative y'all let Vlad bleach y'all sdome with.


Low-key should be ashamed of y'all selves imo.

Just like y'all on here and don't make re up the truly disgraceful "Nas Lost" era that y'all and the media / bloggers participated in the blog era.

Matter fact I might do a thread on it calling it out.

Y'all might wanna go back and delete y'all post before y'all get exposed

I'm so terrified

 

[Asicz]

Its disgusting how Nas gets no credit for the risk he took multiple times in his career artistically

Without Nas career in the mainstream Rap ecosystem we would have only have vapid capitalistic mantra music from Hov.

Atleast Nas can meld the aspirational gangsta with the conscious artistically going back as far as It Was Written

 

[Stone]

Dope album.
Would put this behind KD2 but ahead of the first one

 

[Mike the Executioner]

Breathe was fire and I think the theme was consistent thruout. Even on shyt like Breathe and Hero he was spittin gems on it. Only track that truly didn’t fit was Make The World Go Round. That should’ve been replaced with Letter To The King.

I love "Make the World Go Round." It was a radio-friendly track, but Nas went insane on it. Game had a great verse, and Chris Brown was really good on the hook.

Laced in Macy's, don't have it, a hatred addict
I need faces mad with frowns when I'm around, or I'm wasting fabric
I don't feel great until my plush pieces, cause you to suck your teeth
So mean mugging on my clean thugging mean nothing
Women dream I'm their husband
I'm Alex Pushkin, the black poetry-writing Russian, ice disgusting
I started bling, how could you question my direction?
Or my Tom Ford collection, gangstas two-stepping

 

[HNIC973]

I love "Make the World Go Round." It was a radio-friendly track, but Nas went insane on it. Game had a great verse, and Chris Brown was really good on the hook.

Laced in Macy's, don't have it, a hatred addict
I need faces mad with frowns when I'm around, or I'm wasting fabric
I don't feel great until my plush pieces, cause you to suck your teeth
So mean mugging on my clean thugging mean nothing
Women dream I'm their husband
I'm Alex Pushkin, the black poetry-writing Russian, ice disgusting
I started bling, how could you question my direction?
Or my Tom Ford collection, gangstas two-stepping

It wasn't a bad song just had zero place on that album. Letter to the King was the obvious choice . I've always liked Untitled solid 4 mic album IMO

 

[TheDarceKnight]

Its disgusting how Nas gets no credit for the risk he took multiple times in his career artistically

Without Nas career in the mainstream Rap ecosystem we would have only have vapid capitalistic mantra music from Hov.

Atleast Nas can meld the aspirational gangsta with the conscious artistically going back as far as It Was Written

I love Jay too, but I don't disagree with this take.

 

[Piff Perkins]

It doesn’t matter because it got undersold by the media and even Nas fans, but a song like Breathe for example was incredibly poignant last year with the George Floyd incident for example, it’s just that it goes under the radar, what Nas was talking about in 08 is still relevant today but it takes a rapper in favor with the media and mainstream America for it to get the respect it deserves.

Breathe America Testify Fried Chicken are great relevant tracks in any era of black history, it’s funny because it seems that people need a white cac media to tell them what poignant black political rap is which is funny in itself.

I agree it had general themes that are still relevant today, but that doesn't make it a good album to me. I just feel like the SONGS were ehh to ok. At that time, the vast majority of rap I was listening to was underground/independent shyt. So naturally the idea of Nas working with Stic Man and Jay Electronica was cool to me. But once Nas started doing that weird shyt with Kelis, marketing the nikka name on jackets and shyt...that's where I started to feel like maybe this is gonna be another "Hip Hop Is Dead" moment where the headline/marketing is more thought out than the music. There were a lot of directions it could have gone sonically, a lot of similar music that was being released at the time. Rising Down came out that same year, and was more successful at what it tried to do. Also a Def Jam release, where the label forced them to put out that wack Birthday Girl song. But at least the Roots were able to get that shyt removed from the album, and they certainly had way less pull at Def Jam than Nas.

 

[H.S.]

I agree it had general themes that are still relevant today, but that doesn't make it a good album to me. I just feel like the SONGS were ehh to ok. At that time, the vast majority of rap I was listening to was underground/independent shyt. So naturally the idea of Nas working with Stic Man and Jay Electronica was cool to me. But once Nas started doing that weird shyt with Kelis, marketing the nikka name on jackets and shyt...that's where I started to feel like maybe this is gonna be another "Hip Hop Is Dead" moment where the headline/marketing is more thought out than the music. There were a lot of directions it could have gone sonically, a lot of similar music that was being released at the time. Rising Down came out that same year, and was more successful at what it tried to do. Also a Def Jam release, where the label forced them to put out that wack Birthday Girl song. But at least the Roots were able to get that shyt removed from the album, and they certainly had way less pull at Def Jam than Nas.

The bolded is kinda fukking me up. I just don't see it.

When's the last time you revisited these albums breh? Because the production on Rising Down has aged horribly imo. I went back to it recently and was surprised at how much less I fukked with it compared to when it dropped.

 

[ThirdAct]

Message To The Feds
Nazareth Savage
These Are Our Heroes(cross out out of respect for Kobe)
Disciple
Sekou Story
Live Now
Just A Moment
Reason
Streets Disciple
UBR
Virgo
Remember The Times
War
Thief’s Theme.



^^^^^ All of them shyts is Solid to fire tracks. Nas don’t got a horrible album.


Life We Chose
Some Of Us Have Angels
Project Windows
Come Get Me(y’all need to learn the difference from underwhelming and trash cause this wasn’t trash by any means)
Shoot ‘Em Up(hood favorite)
Last Words
Family
You Owe Me

All Solid to classic tracks.
like I said. Nas don’t have a horrible album.

Rest of My Life from SD is an underrated gem too, really smooth track.

 

[Surreal]

22K is unacceptable. Nas shouldn't drop another album or another verse

 

[bill]

Does Magic have any Singing at all? What was the last Nas album like that?

 

[bill]

22K is unacceptable. Nas shouldn't drop another album or another verse

That's great considering most still don't even know about it and no physicals

 

[Piff Perkins]

The bolded is kinda fukking me up. I just don't see it.

When's the last time you revisited these albums breh? Because the production on Rising Down has aged horribly imo. I went back to it recently and was surprised at how much less I fukked with it compared to when it dropped.

I skimmed through it earlier today when it came to mind as an Untitled comparison. First I will say: it's a HUGE step back from Game Theory, which might be the Roots' best album to this day. But it managed to feel darker to me, even more left to what was coming out on Def Jam at the time. I'm just saying it fit that tone I thought Untitled would have, more.