qnsfinest
Superstar
No one has mentioned a release date for ghost yet. Not ghost, massappeal or nas. I wouldn’t believe this date until they all announce it.
Official Nas Thread
- Thread starter Ronald
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No one has mentioned a release date for ghost yet. Not ghost, massappeal or nas. I wouldn’t believe this date until they all announce it.
Wow, no space between the albums, huh? I guess just let them fly and give fans the whole summer to enjoy it all. Means we’re probably getting Nas and Primo even sooner than expected
I’m actually shocked because Slick Rick has been getting so much cool promo I figured all of the Legend Has It albums would get similar backing.
spliz
SplizThaDon
U peeped how at the end she was basically saying the album doesn’t sound commercial right? Anyone who listens to it with their own ears can say that. The album was actually more street oriented than anything.The way she broke down “Suspect”
Facts. It just didn’t sound like Illmatic, that’s why the little nerdy journalists and them tried to act like it was commercial, as usual they’re dweeb ass didn’t know what they were talking about, same holds true today btw. Nas ran the street, ran NYC, ran the summer, etc… with that album.
It Was Written is one of my favorite albums. That album is still commercial though. It can still be street and commercial. The fact that The Trackmasters said they intentionally did things sonically to reach a larger audience makes it commercial. There's still a polish and a gloss to that album that rounds off the rougher edges, so that it isn't too much floss, gloss, and polish that it turns away the streets. There's not too much of the harder, raw, street edge that it turns away the masses. The Trackmasters achieved their goal
spliz
SplizThaDon
Trackmasters ain’t even do the whole album. Its production by Havoc, Premo, Stretch, LES. Etc etc. the album is more polished but it still sounds gritty. People try to act like that album was on the opposite end of Stakes Is High as a shift in hip hop. That’s fukkin stupid. nikka had a couple hit singles and nikkas was hating. That’s it. U never hear the other classic albums that year get the same criticism. RD sound way more accessible but it doesn’t get labeled commercial ever. shyt just wasn’t Illmatic. shyt even Purple Tape sounded polished compared to 36 Chambers but that shyt don’t get accused of sounding commercial. If most non bias people are confused by a narrative. There’s something wrong with the narrative. shyt. Fast Life was more commercial sounding than anything on IWW damn near. And nikkas loved that record. And it was Nas before IWW dropped.
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I can’t BELIEVE nikkas in 96 was saying IWW was commercial just because of the sample on Street Dreams and the hook on If I Ruled The World. shyt is insanity
Alexander Wiggin
All Star
everything is about narratives. When Nas does ether it's childish jokes but 2pac hit em up insults were grown and powerful. Nas does oochie wally and one mic that's confusion, but Pac does keep ya head up and all about you it's versatility
Trackmasters helmed the album. He had a single in 1996 that featured Lauryn Hill singing. I saw nothing wrong with that. Hip Hop had shifted in 1994. It wasn't out of the norm to hear singing on a Hip Hop song. This was the way of mainstream commercial rap. And yeah, IWW was kind of a shift in Hip Hop. This was a predecessor to what Bad Boy would do in 1997.
Nobody was going to look at Jay the same. His debut album featured Mary J Blige on "Can't Knock The Hustle". "Ain't No" was blatantly commercial. This was his debut. He didn't have an Illmatic to compare to.
Its fitting that time has been kind to Nas. Ether is still looked at as the gold standard for diss tracks (maybe tied now with Not Like Us) and Oochie Wally and You Owe Me get some of the biggest crowd reactions at any Nas show i’ve been to. If you look at YouTube reactions these kids today go absolutely bonkers listening to One Mic.
Piff Perkins
Veteran
But they were opposite ends. There is nothing commercial about Stakes Is High, it got virtually zero radio play and wasn't trying to get radio play. It Was Written was literally crafted to get Nas more commercial success after Illmatic. Sure...Stretch and Havoc are on the album. But the dominant sound are the Trackmasters. Including a single with singing on the hook - something that "real" hip hop fans loathed at the time. And a disco sample (Street Dreams) that "real" hip hop fans disliked. And JoJo on a hook (Black Girl Lost). None of this matters to ME but we are talking about east coast, NY "real rap" nerds who still had a lot of influence at the time and the label they put on that album sticks to this day. And I get it....you can listen to IWW's drums compared to any noteworthy "real" rap album from 95 (OB4CL for instance) and immediately tell the difference in sound. But is the album dope or not? Yes. So many of these types won't really answer that question in any logical way.
Today nobody cares and what we view as dope or "hip hop" shifted. And guess what, IWW aged very well because it was ahead of that shift. So when I hear 9th Wonder praise Rick Ross beats over the last decade I want to bust out laughing because those drums/snares are way closer to IWW than Illmatic. In fact I've heard multiple people praise Ross who shyt on IWW. Guru, Jay, Clark Kent (RIP), Pete Rock...there was like a ten year period where every time Ross dropped an album with some of those types of tracks (example: Santorini Greece) he got praised by the Coli and all the guys who disliked IWW years earlier.
wouldnt mind that be the cover to new joint, i like simple stuff, looks good enough, he looooooves qb, album should have more of a street sound than C. Aguilera, makes sense
part of the lyrics are from Memory Lane produced by Chris Martin...
LETS GO ESCOOOOO