Papoose: Nas Greatness gets downplayed because....

[Ziggiy]

Out of curiosity....do you think Def Jam's 10mil was a good investment? One plat album, two gold albums (one of which took took nearly 8 years), and two that didn't sell (Distant Relatives and Nasir). Mind you, the label is getting around 62% of total album sales, at best.

Distant Relatives didn’t come out on Def Jam it came out via universal and didn’t count towards the albums he owed Def Jam. Also considering the fact that the promotional budget for the albums wasn’t astronomical (Nas himself said in XXL that he mostly pockets his marketing budget). There were two videos for Hip Hop Is Dead (three if you count Hustlers, which never came out) two for Untitled (three if you count the Be A ****** Too short film) and four for Life Is Good. Nasir had the “Nasir” short film.


Also keep in mind that Def Jam split the profits and any losses from both Hip Hop Is Dead and Untitled with Sony. Sony also had to supply half of marketing. Life Is Good was the only Nas album that Def Jam reaped all the profits of.


Also Def Jam wanted to resign Nas after Life Is Good came out. So it seems that the initial deal was indeed worth it. Again, what other legacy artist was going Gold by 2008? Yet alone 2012? What other legacy artist is pushing 77K in 2018?

I’d say Def Jam made out pretty well considering.

 

[Piff Perkins]

Distant Relatives didn’t come out on Def Jam it came out via universal and didn’t count towards the albums he owed Def Jam. Also considering the fact that the promotional budget for the albums wasn’t astronomical (Nas himself said in XXL that he mostly pockets his marketing budget). There were two videos for Hip Hop Is Dead (three if you count Hustlers, which never came out) two for Untitled (three if you count the Be A ****** Too short film) and four for Life Is Good. Nasir had the “Nasir” short film.


Also keep in mind that Def Jam split the profits and any losses from both Hip Hop Is Dead and Untitled with Sony. Sony also had to supply half of marketing. Life Is Good was the only Nas album that Def Jam reaped all the profits of.


Also Def Jam wanted to resign Nas after Life Is Good came out. So it seems that the initial deal was indeed worth it. Again, what other legacy artist was going Gold by 2008? Yet alone 2012? What other legacy artist is pushing 77K in 2018?

I’d say Def Jam made out pretty well considering.

Splitting the profits cuts into that 62% then.

As a legacy artist you’re 100% right, his recent numbers are better than virtually anyone else in a similar situation. Hell is anyone in a similar situation? He’s in a unique place. But for Def Jam, when they signed him he wasn’t a legacy artist. They likely thought they could get him back on track, hit wise. That plus the Def Jam machine...you can see why he was such a lucrative free agent.

When you factor everything in though, they lost money on the deal. Which may be expected since it was so generous but still. In terms of resigning after LIG...I’m glad Nas said no because Def Jam lets legacy artists die on the vine. All you get is some nice 5 star hotel stays.

 

[FlyRy]

 

[Cladyclad]

Bruh. One plat album makes that money right back and then some. u buggin out. Lol. shyt. Def Jam was MORE mad at Jay Z for Kingdom Come because they didn’t make back what they spent in promotion and other shyt with that album.

Def jam didn’t spend shyt of KC. It was all Jay. MNF & Budweiser were deals Jay had. That was the bulk of his promotion

u just make up stories with jay z and I’m the only one who checks you lol

 

[IllmaticDelta]

nas is actually revered by the all time greats/current greats

he's downplayed by casuals/people who have links to Jayz

 

[Greenhornet]

sad how Jay gets brought up cause hate

2 different artists 2 different careers
same with biggie and pac

nas been solid for over a decade or 2 at least. Him and Em are both running victory laps
you could eliminate half of Nas, Jay, Em, 2pac, albums and they would still be running for top 10 spots easily

all whats being said in this thread can apply directly to KRS one too .... man is a juggarnaught and needs to be downplayed to make other people have a chance
alot of really dope shyt gets put into this category because people cant handle someone being easily better than you on an off day. I mean Jay even said it himself
"dumb down my content to double my dollars" most cats are stupid as fukk and cant handle all that shyt... If Jay was really rapping rapping people would call him a nerd

lost tapes era nas alone is deeper and better crafted than most people's primes ... these dudes at this level can make a better CD than 95% of artists in a month than most people can make in a year and a half with a team of people working.
jay literally could make another 4:44 in his sleep. Pac was sleeping on the mixboard lol all that condensed, esoteric Nas shyt is still in there.

Saying Nas is trash is foolish culturally. I'm not a huge Lebron fan but I still recognize he can easily be top 10... certain shyt speaks for itself. I realized as I got older, being from Eastcoast... cats that dismiss dope shyt or pretend like other regions dont have heat are simply not real rap fans. You cant just like one type of shyt and claim to be a hiphop head its impossible. No other hobby or art can you like 1 piece of something and still claim you are a fan of it.

 

[Shadow King]

He's not wrong but that's not really why Nas isn't appreciated enough

F A C T S


A lot of it has to do with Nas music and content not really being as easily digestible, or "cool" as some of his peers as well...even to me, a super duper fan, musically I wish he'd make more shyt for the 85'ers, lol...just cause I want my guy to shine. That's why I love KD, its quality but also easily digestible.

But he is right, all the unbelievable ones get kinda slighted or completely ignored, for the most part

The correct answer

 

[Playaz Eyez]

brehs who used to hate on nas would say shyt like "I don't want to think while I listen to music" and phrases like "big words"

And they say “big words” as if he’s just rhyming the thesaurus like Canibus

 

[prophecypro]

Yeah hes had his share of being nit picked on, thats what he saying essientally

 

[prophecypro]

@ISO brought up a very uncomfortable truth...Once God’s Son cycle was over Nas didn’t have one single song that lived in clubs/parties

Prior to 03 for all his lyrical prowess and talent he stayed with some shyt for the clubs

Oochie Wally
Owe Me
Hate Me Now
Phone Tap
If I Ruled The World
Got Yourself A Gun

Nas always had at least one song from an album ringing off in the club. His best chance post 03 was with “Virgo” but for some reason they never pushed for it as a single

Bridging The Gap?
Just A Moment?
Hero???
etc

It just got worse & worse. It was almost as if he wasn’t trying to compete

Hits or not, I think he made some of his strongest singles after 2002 though, especially the singles off Life is Good and this Kings Disease (The Don, Bye Baby, Daughters, Ultra Black, Spicy etc) even the SD album had some good albums (Just a moment, Theifs Theme). Whatever the reason, I dont think its his fault, if he did the right he'd be way different of an artist

 

[⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐]

Ehhhh....can't say he's wrong.

But Nas has a legit argument for G.O.A.T., f'real.

I don't think people truly understand just how much time is encompassed in a G.O.A.T. argument....we're talking decades. Some people throw the G.O.A.T label out there when what they're REALLY implying is "in MY (their) lifetime/experience", which is more limited.

Once upon a time The Coli did an in-depth GOAThood/Top 10 debate. The Tupac Vs Nas debates were legendary. What you just said was mentioned as a talking point during that debate

 

[Cladyclad]

Nas music is just boring. The more he release music the more detach he gets from being looked at as top tier.

 

[TrifeGod]

 

[JustCKing]

And just to out it into perspective of Nas going platinum with Street's Disciple:

1) It had no hit songs

2) It dropped the same day as T.I. dropped Urban Legend. T.I. was on fire and had "Bring Em Out" and "U Don't Know Me" as singles. Nas ended up doing around the same numbers as T.I. in his first week and T.I. had the bigger buzz.

3) It was Nas's least commercial album.

 

[mr.africa]

Nas music is just boring. The more he release music the more detach he gets from being looked at as top tier.

troll better