Papoose: Nas Greatness gets downplayed because....

[Budda]

Nas is the only rapper of his type still relevant. Intellectual wordsmiths like him have a short shelf life generally, where is Lupe, the whole of Wu Tang, and a host of rappers who debuted in the 90’s still being nominated for Grammys and being featured on albums such as Jhene Aikos?

The rappers who tend to last long are the chameleon rapper types like a Jay-Z who keep their longevity via famous relationships, business ventures and mimicking styles that are popping, I mean Jay Z now is Nas of 2004-12

 

[Budda]

Great music is great music, a hit is not necessarily a good song either.

 

[Surreal]

False. Nas greatness is downplayed cause he's not ugly
Same as Rakim and Pac

Like Jay-Z said "they feel his pain and his agony"
You ugly nikkas feel that pain

 

[Pop123]

One Mic was a big enough hit MTV wanted him to perform it back in the day

I Can & Made You Look were featured on these compilations and if you were around back in the day you probably know that these albums only featured songs that were performing well on the charts across genres

These joints didn't perform that well on the charts tho, haha, that's what I'm saying. I mean we can pull it up and check if you want, I'm sure none of them went even close to gold. Them joints all had an impact tho, I aint knocking my guy and his records, almost everything he drops is gonna have an impact because he's Nas. But "hits" are hit records... you can say the shyt with him and J-Lo was a lightweight "hit". The joint with Missy was definitely a hit. If I Ruled The World was a hit. The shyt with Lil Nas X? Idk. I'm sure I'm forgetting some.

 

[Budda]

They get hype! Very emotional about Nas.

And I get it, but it's about the music. I can be honest when my favorites fall off. Redman was my guy before he even dropped his first album, but when he fell off, I was honest about it. You could be a lifelong Nas fan too, but if you tell certain dudes that Nas fell off, they're ready to pop the trunk on you.

Red man has never been as good as Nas not then, not now, Nas can fall off and still be best rapper alive, that’s how high his level was..

 

[Pop123]

What’s a hit record to you?

shyt if those not hits then Nas must not have any to you

Definition of hit record


: a record or CD that is very popular and sells many copies

That's not even me, that's Webster's definition of a hit record, lol. I listed a few of them in my previous post, I don't know the numbers but I remember them just being "big" and everywhere.

 

[Budda]

A hit is as much about promotion and the machine


This should be a hit song, it has the right sound to be a hit, replace Nas with Drake or J Cole and it is, this is nothing to do with the quality of the song but with promotion and profile, that’s why the whole hit debate is pandered by people with little grasp on popular music. Rappers and singers make hit songs everyday but don’t have the right machine and profile behind them to make it into a viable hit, this is why you get ghostwriters and people who write hit songs for others.

 

[Deltron]

Also, I Can is actually a hit my nikka it was top 15 on the Billboard we had to sing it at my graduation as a kid big song we had a black principal that’s culture shyt

shyt was definitely big for peeps who were kids in 03...(I was in college)...cause I went to a nas concert like in 2010ish and the crowd was hyping the fukk out of him to play I can...you'd think it was hate me now or fukking ether.

 

[Pop123]

A hit is as much about promotion and the machine


This should be a hit song, it has the right sound to be a hit, replace Nas with Drake or J Cole and it is, this is nothing to do with the quality of the song but with promotion and profile, that’s why the whole hit debate is pandered by people with little grasp on popular music. Rappers and singers make hit songs everyday but don’t have the right machine and profile behind them to make it into a viable hit

So technically they're not "hit songs"...they're "songs that could be hit songs if marketed and promoted right".

I'm sure the average artist would tell you he has 100 hit records if thats what we doin, lol.

 

[Thief's Theme]

Papoose is talking about lyrical ability and this thread becomes an argument over sales

 

[ISO]

Definition of hit record


: a record or CD that is very popular and sells many copies

That's not even me, that's Webster's definition of a hit record, lol. I listed a few of them in my previous post, I don't know the numbers but I remember them just being "big" and everywhere.

All them songs was on the Billboard 100 and among Nas most popular records

 

[Pop123]

Papoose is talking about lyrical ability and this thread becomes an argument over sales

No one is arguing, lol...well I'm not. And threads seldom stay on perfect topic G'z.

 

[Awesome Wells]

Red man has never been as good as Nas not then, not now, Nas can fall off and still be best rapper alive, that’s how high his level was..

I didn't see anyone comparing Nas to Redman.

The point was just that when our favorite MC's fall off, we have to be able to say so. Really doesn't matter which MC it is.

 

[Budda]

So technically they're not "hit songs"...they're "songs that could be hit songs if marketed and promoted right".

I'm sure the average artist would tell you he has 100 hit records if thats what we doin, lol.

Yes or songs that could be hit songs with the right face and name behind it..

Wouldn’t say the average artist, but there are many talented songwriters who know their best bet would be to give their potential hit songs to someone with the profile appeal and machine behind them to fully utilise it.

 

[ISO]

A hit is as much about promotion and the machine


This should be a hit song, it has the right sound to be a hit, replace Nas with Drake or J Cole and it is, this is nothing to do with the quality of the song but with promotion and profile, that’s why the whole hit debate is pandered by people with little grasp on popular music. Rappers and singers make hit songs everyday but don’t have the right machine and profile behind them to make it into a viable hit, this is why you get ghostwriters and people who write hit songs for others.

It’s a good song that’s Nas rendition of Trip by Ella Mai featuring Big Sean and Don Toliver

It’s not a hit though at that tempo and there’s not a great demand amongst the young generation for Nas music to carry it

He could have had one with Spicy had outside been open specifically in NYC and had he not dropped a trash video it briefly cracked the Billboard when it dropped Fivio Foreign was on fire at that time