"Old" Nas vs "New" Nas?

[thekidfromqueens]

The thing is that Nas doesn't really make "Bangers" anymore. Even his harder, more boom bap sounding tracks (The Don) aren't really something simple you can just mindlessly zone out too.



"New York is like an Island a big Rikers Island
The cops be out wildin, all I hear is sirens
It’s all about surviving same old two step
Tryna stay alive when
They be out robbin, I been out rhyming
Since born knowledge like prophet Muhammad
Say the ink from a scholar
Worth more than the blood of a martyr"

Nas's last 5 albums have all revolved around a certain concept. Street's Disciple was about him fusing all of his different rap personas (Nasty, Escobar, Nastradamus, God's Son) into one man, maturing and settling down. Hip Hop Is Dead was him channeling his frustration with that era's EXTREME dumbing down and disrespect for the culture into a musical cry for Hip Hop's collective artists to wake up and take responsibility for the damage they were causing to the genre. Untitled and Distant Relatives were poignant observations on Race relations and Black identity in America and the greater influence on African culture throughout the world. Life Is Good was the work of a man entering middle age reflecting on the ups and downs of life and existence. NONE of these concepts alone, really would offer you the type of music that a crowd could "get hype too" whereas his earlier work offered sprinkles of that.

In my opinion I prefer New Nas, simply because the Nas of THIS era as an elder statesmen who is unafraid to use his platform to create entire albums centered upon a unified theme is fascinating. I'd rather be impressed by an album as an entire body of work then have a few "bangers" here and there to satisfy a fleeting moment in a club or DJ set. There are plenty artists who serve that purpose but only few artists (in my opinion) who can craft an excellent to classic album surrounding the themes of ones own personal growth. We'll ALWAYS have Illmatic, It Was Written, I Am and all the classic Nas freestyles to give us that old feeling of when he was a young, hungry MC, who just wanted to kidnap, torture, and rape any beat he spit on. The catalogue isn't going anywhere, but Hip Hop is better off when artists of Nas's talent and pedigree utilize their lyrical gifts to craft albums that are true to who they are at a certain time period, instead of going after the "banger" or the "Hit". Hip Hop doesn't need Nas for that any longer, Hip Hop needs Nas to continue to BE NAS






#TPC

 

[Awesome Wells]

In my opinion I prefer New Nas, simply because the Nas of THIS era as an elder statesmen who is unafraid to use his platform to create entire albums centered upon a unified theme is fascinating. I'd rather be impressed by an album as an entire body of work then have a few "bangers" here and there to satisfy a fleeting moment in a club or DJ set. There are plenty artists who serve that purpose but only few artists (in my opinion) who can craft an excellent to classic album surrounding the themes of ones own personal growth. We'll ALWAYS have Illmatic, It Was Written, I Am and all the classic Nas freestyles to give us that old feeling of when he was a young, hungry MC, who just wanted to kidnap, torture, and rape any beat he spit on. The catalogue isn't going anywhere, but Hip Hop is better off when artists of Nas's talent and pedigree utilize their lyrical gifts to craft albums that are true to who they are at a certain time period, instead of going after the "banger" or the "Hit". Hip Hop doesn't need Nas for that any longer, Hip Hop needs Nas to continue to BE NAS

I hear you.

But why do you think he's lost so much of the support he had durin' that crazy run from '94-'99? A lot of cats may not remember, but he was the standard for what you were "supposed" to be as an MC. Other cats came in later during that period and started to kinda take on that role too. But Nas was the one that everyone was try'na be like. There's no denying that. I remember Royal Flush sayin' one time that NY was "Nas and a bunch of little Nas's" back in '95.

A lot of artists grow, but what do you think happened to Nas' following? Tonight, I saw eras of his career playin' out in front of veteran Hip Hop lovers, and you could see the divide between his more recent work in how they reacted compared to his older more classic shyt. Did all of his original fans abandon him, leaving him with newer cats in lower numbers that missed the era when he basically ruled shyt?

 

[Ziggiy]

I hear you.

But why do you think he's lost so much of the support he had durin' that crazy run from '94-'99? A lot of cats may not remember, but he was the standard for what you were "supposed" to be as an MC. Other cats came in later during that period and started to kinda take on that role too. But Nas was the one that everyone was try'na be like. There's no denying that. I remember Royal Flush sayin' one time that NY was "Nas and a bunch of little Nas's" back in '95.

A lot of artists grow, but what do you think happened to Nas' following? Tonight, I saw eras of his career playin' out in front of veteran Hip Hop lovers, and you could see the divide between his more recent work in how they reacted compared to his older more classic shyt. Did all of his original fans abandon him, leaving him with newer cats in lower numbers that missed the era when he basically ruled shyt?

I mean I don't really look at it like he's lost "so much support" You have to look at factors OTHER than a show you might have played to see Nas's true relevance to Hip Hop. There are STILL artists, producers, DJ's to this DAY who say that Nas is the greatest. J.Cole has been so inspired by Nas that even the mention of him being disappointed by Work Out caused him to write "Let Nas Down" and put it on his album. Kendrick Lamar recently said that if he could've had anyone on his debut album it would've been Nas. Lupe Fiasco has called him the "Supreme Rapper" Common went on CNN and said that Nas was the greatest. I mean we could go on and on about PRESENT DAY examples of Nas's continued legacy amongst the genre. As far as his OG fans, their probably the ones who have rocked with him all this time. Remember Nas still sells out shows all round the world, so there are people who enthusiastically will support him peforming newer material (as well as older) it's not like he has to go on "Illmatic Tours" where that's all anybody wants to hear from him. The divide you saw amongst the people at your show is a divide of INDIVIDUALS with their own tastes, it can't really compare with what we know of Nas's present day career as it's been mostly successful...

 

[Awesome Wells]

I mean I don't really look at it like he's lost "so much support" You have to look at factors OTHER than a show you might have played to see Nas's true relevance to Hip Hop. There are STILL artists, producers, DJ's to this DAY who say that Nas is the greatest. J.Cole has been so inspired by Nas that even the mention of him being disappointed by Work Out caused him to write "Let Nas Down" and put it on his album. Kendrick Lamar recently said that if he could've had anyone on his debut album it would've been Nas. Lupe Fiasco has called him the "Supreme Rapper" Common went on CNN and said that Nas was the greatest. I mean we could go on and on about PRESENT DAY examples of Nas's continued legacy amongst the genre. As far as his OG fans, their probably the ones who have rocked with him all this time. Remember Nas still sells out shows all round the world, so there are people who enthusiastically will support him peforming newer material (as well as older) it's not like he has to go on "Illmatic Tours" where that's all anybody wants to hear from him. The divide you saw amongst the people at your show is a divide of INDIVIDUALS with their own tastes, it can't really compare with what we know of Nas's present day career as it's been mostly successful...

We all love Nas, that's pretty much a given. But I'm lookin' at a few things.

The shows are a huge indication, because these are hardcore Hip Hop heads that have been around way before I have. These are people that have worked with him, but also people that supported him at one point early on, but don't anymore. I also look at how people are supportin' the albums. Actually supportin' them, like buying them, getting interest out there, so he can tour and sell out shows the way he used to. So buying tickets, shyt like that. It's just not the same anymore for him.

He's lost a lot of fans and support. My question is, why would that be? Could it be the content? This is the cat that went platinum in like 7 weeks with It Was Written. I've worked with Scoremore, who promotes tours and shows in Texas, and they couldn't get enough funding to host a three night stand for Nas last year. No one bought enough tickets for them to even get one show off for him. But they were able to do two weeks of sold out shyt for fukkin' Ab-Soul and Mac Miller! Nas' last album sold less in total in a year, than what Cole's album sold in less than a month.

It seems like his newer fans, mostly people that have come on after 2001, feel he's the same. But the cats that know him from "Back to the Grill" and shyt like that, have given up on him. Could his current content be the thing that changed the course of his career?

 

[HNIC973]

Ziggiy

 

[Ziggiy]

We all love Nas, that's pretty much a given. But I'm lookin' at a few things.

The shows are a huge indication, because these are hardcore Hip Hop heads that have been around way before I have. These are people that have worked with him, but also people that supported him at one point early on, but don't anymore. I also look at how people are supportin' the albums. Actually supportin' them, like buying them, getting interest out there, so he can tour and sell out shows the way he used to. So buying tickets, shyt like that. It's just not the same anymore for him.

He's lost a lot of fans and support. My question is, why would that be? Could it be the content? This is the cat that went platinum in like 7 weeks with It Was Written. I've worked with Scoremore, who promotes tours and shows in Texas, and they couldn't get enough funding to host a three night stand for Nas last year. No one bought enough tickets for them to even get one show off for him. But they were able to do two weeks of sold out shyt for fukkin' Ab-Soul and Mac Miller! Nas' last album sold less in total in a year, than what Cole's album sold in less than a month.

It seems like his newer fans, mostly people that have come on after 2001, feel he's the same. But the cats that know him from "Back to the Grill" and shyt like that, have given up on him. Could his current content be the thing that changed the course of his career?

I mean look at it like this. Jay-Z went 6X platinum on Vol.2 and hasn't been close to that number again. Every rapper has a peak. But not ALL the albums sold at the rapper's peak were "true" fans. Some liked the singles, some were just bandwagon hoppers. Its the nature of the business. And also regions. I'm sure Nas isn't as popular in Texas as he is places up north. He sold out Radio City Music Hall for New Years and sold out the O2 Arena in London in March. It's not the "quality" of the music as it is that certain movements within Hip Hop peak at certain times. Right now it's J'Cole's, Kendrick's, Drake's, Wale's, it's their time to take the paton and carry on. This is their movement of TODAY. The fact that Nas can still have such a fanbase that will support him and put him number 1 on billboard, get him a gold album, and allow him to tour both domestically and internationally is a testimony to how relevant h still remains. I'm not arguing that there is a dip in popularity amongst mainstream or that a portion of his fanbase is jaded into wanting just one specific type of music from him. But isn't something indicative of the quality of his current output

 

[Awesome Wells]

I mean look at it like this. Jay-Z went 6X platinum on Vol.2 and hasn't been close to that number again. Every rapper has a peak. But not ALL the albums sold at the rapper's peak were "true" fans. Some liked the singles, some were just bandwagon hoppers. Its the nature of the business. And also regions. I'm sure Nas isn't as popular in Texas as he is places up north. He sold out Radio City Music Hall for New Years and sold out the O2 Arena in London in March. It's not the "quality" of the music as it is that certain movements within Hip Hop peak at certain times. Right now it's J'Cole's, Kendrick's, Drake's, Wale's, it's their time to take the paton and carry on. This is their movement of TODAY. The fact that Nas can still have such a fanbase that will support him and put him number 1 on billboard, get him a gold album, and allow him to tour both domestically and internationally is a testimony to how relevant h still remains. I'm not arguing that there is a dip in popularity amongst mainstream or that a portion of his fanbase is jaded into wanting just one specific type of music from him. But isn't something indicative of the quality of his current output

I hate comparing Jay and Nas, but yeah, Hov sold that back then. But one could argue easily that he's more successful now than he was before. But those sales for Jay came off the strength of droppin' a tour film and also generating visibility from that same tour. Hip Hop's most profitable at that time. They ALL ate well from that. Redman went platinum off that tour! So it's a little different.

"Quality" can be argued. But it's clear that Nas isn't gettin' the kind of love that he once did. I've cited sales just to show that there isn't any indication that his following has stuck with him. In regard to quality, look at Kendrick's story. Everyone swore that his album was classic, but he had no hit records, and people pushed that album to platinum, and I know a ton of people that never even heard of the dude until way after the album dropped. But people praised the album into greatness, it seems. So if quality is what counts, where are Nas' fans? And why isn't that being done for him? How could people cry classic for an album like LIG, but not buy it? I've deejayed for Nas at Gramercy in NY. Two nights, cheap ass tickets, and the spot wasn't packed. This was just a few years back. I spoke about this on SOHH. It was sad. Dude's lost a lot of love.

We know that all MC's have their peaks, but the question that no one seems to have an answer to, including me, is why did his support decline so heavily? All we've been able to establish is that he makes different music now, but is that why his following has dwindled? If so, should he change what he's been doing, to win back the kinda love he once had? Get back to the old way of doin' things, like someone said earlier in here?

 

[Ziggiy]

I hate comparing Jay and Nas, but yeah, Hov sold that back then. But one could argue easily that he's more successful now than he was before. But those sales for Jay came off the strength of droppin' a tour film and also generating visibility from that same tour. Hip Hop's most profitable at that time. They ALL ate well from that. Redman went platinum off that tour! So it's a little different.

"Quality" can be argued. But it's clear that Nas isn't gettin' the kind of love that he once did. I've cited sales just to show that there isn't any indication that his following has stuck with him. In regard to quality, look at Kendrick's story. Everyone swore that his album was classic, but he had no hit records, and people pushed that album to platinum, and I know a ton of people that never even heard of the dude until way after the album dropped. But people praised the album into greatness, it seems. So if quality is what counts, where are Nas' fans? And why isn't that being done for him? How could people cry classic for an album like LIG, but not buy it? I've deejayed for Nas at Gramercy in NY. Two nights, cheap ass tickets, and the spot wasn't packed. This was just a few years back. I spoke about this on SOHH. It was sad. Dude's lost a lot of love.

We know that all MC's have their peaks, but the question that no one seems to have an answer to, including me, is why did his support decline so heavily? All we've been able to establish is that he makes different music now, but is that why his following has dwindled? If so, should he change what he's been doing, to win back the kinda love he once had? Get back to the old way of doin' things, like someone said earlier in here?

I mean success and support are kind of relative in this day and age. I can throw out the fact that in the last 8 years Nas has three straight number 1 solo albums all having gone gold, all having been nominated for a Grammy for Best Rap Album, all having excellent overall reviews. He tours every year with the BIGGEST Hip Hop festival (Rock The Bells) and has renowned companies such as Hennessey making deals for him to endorse them. It doesn't really "feel" like Nas has lost a ton of support in relative to other Hip Hop acts of the 90's. Again, not trying to make this a Nas/Jay-Z thing but OTHER than Jay-Z, what artist that debuted in the early 90's garners as much mainstream support as Nas?

I think that your question of why/how he lost the "superstar" status that he had in the 90's is simply a by-product of the type of music that's popular today. Whether we want to say Nas isn't "playing the game" of making easily accessible music or whether the larger mainstream consumer has simply moved on the result is clear. 3 to 4 million people don't buy Nas albums, that's a fact....

Now whether or not Nas should go back to the "old way" of doing things is something I feel shouldn't happen. As I stated before, Nas should do Nas. I can almost GUARANTEE you that Nas wouldn't be as popular, respected, or relevant as he is NOW if he didn't make the albums that he does now. Illmatic part 2 and It Was Written part 6 aren't going to do anything but stagnate him as an artist, which is the WORST possible outcome. Nas was in the top 6 of Hip Hop sales for 2012, doing it HIS WAY and as a fan, I'd rather him do that then struggle to make bullshyt singles with Drake or 2 Chainz or have Hit Boy produce his entire album in a desperate attempt to reclaim past glory.


"Don't buy my songs, y'all don't roll with it
Coming to concerts singing hoe'ing shyt
fukk y'all lil' lil' hoe bytches
I don't need y'all, I'll go gold with it"

If Nas himself has made peace with his status as a commercial artist within the genre, then I feel like the question of him "doing it differently" has already been answered by the GOAT himself. He's not concerned with running the Platinum race or winning back abandoned fans. He makes a comfortable living, has a sizable fanbase, and enough support from that fanbase to release the type of music he wants. I'd take 5 Distant Relatives albums, 10 Untitled albums, and 20 Life Is Good albums before I'd take an album he released just to get "back" to where he was. Let's remember that when we talk about "support" of fans, that his most celebrated album, Illmatic, took TEN YEARS to go platinum, and yet that's hailed as the greatest Hip Hop album ever released, so again I say things like support and relevance are relative....


#TPC

 

[C-Styles]

from 2011-2012 he had a run of killing every guest appearance he was on and even sounded like "Illmatic Nas" on most of these features, The NEWER NAS sounds Rejuvenated AF and it shows on LIG, which is a classic to me!

 

[The Ruler 09]

I think Nas is good as ever.

 

[sticks]

Let's be honest, it's unlikely that any current or future rapper will match Nas' run from 94-96.
'94 he dropped Illmatic - widely hailed as the GOAT hip hop album.

Then check out his guest verses from '95:
AZ - Mo money, mo murder ...
Kool G Rap - Fast life
Raekwon - Verbal intercourse
Mobb Deep - Eye 4 an eye

The latter two have claim to be the GOAT guest verse.
Then in '96 he dropped the (IMO) most lyrically advanced album ever.

Even with his recent run of killing guest verses & dropping LIG, it doesn't compare to the mid 90's.

 

[King Ming]

yall will only when the GOAT is no longer with us....

 

[Pinyapplesuckas]

Nas is still an amazing lyricist. He's just alot more reflective than he is boastful at this point. you still get joints like The Don(aka Made You Look Part. 7), but you're gonna get more jewels to unravel. real life shiit.

ive noticed that he spits a little faster on LIG than say Nastradamus era

 

[Ukbrotha]

As a lyricist, he's still as good as ever, maybe even better. I do think some of the songs aren't as strong as they were in pre stillmatic era. But I still enjoy LiG. Very good 4 mic album. Still my fave MC of all time.

 

[Barney Rubble]

Not trying to hate but new Nas is boring to me. I can definitely see why crowds dont fukk with his newer albums. From the flow to the content to the beats to the overall engery, I just don't get the same old feeling as I did with him in the mid 90s. I'll admit he does show glimpses of his former self but not enough to hold my interest. I bought illmatic and it was written the day they were released but when he drops new albums I barely care anymore. I still listen but it mostly all sounds the same to me, boring. I know the same can be said for most MC's from his era but he was pretty much the gold standard of MC at the time so I'm more critical. I respect that he wanted to grow and mature in his style but I say why mess with perfection. I think he would have a lot more fans, mainly his old fan base, if he just stayed spitting the same braggadocious and raw shyt. I remember buying albums strictly off the strength of a Nas verse.