Papoose: Nas Greatness gets downplayed because....

[Devil Plisken…CMS]

Question. Can you read sales data & do you realize that “the club” isn’t the only place people listen to music?

Oh you didn't like that question huh?

 

[Rekkapryde]

I've never heard anybody (besides himself) rate DJ Khalid.

But he's the best tho

 

[JuvenileHell]

Nas haters being idiots as usual

 

[Shadow King]

I think its less commercial than both. HHID had production from Scott Storch, Will.I.Am, Dre, Stargate, and Kanye. Those were some of the biggest hitmakers at the time.

Untitled had Stargate, Polow Da Don, Cool & Dre, Keri Hilson, and a Chris Brown feature.

Street's Disciple was mostly, if not fully Nas's usual production team. Q Tip being a reunion of sorts since it is the first song they did since "One Love" and "World Is Yours" remix.

Big name producers in itself don't make things commercial when you make certain songs. Breh was making songs about going at Fox News, fried chicken, aliens, project cockroaches

 

[Pimp]

My top 5 hasn't changed in 20 years.

Pac
Big
Nas
Scarface
Ice Cube

Living rappers Nas is the GOAT.

 

[Mastamimd]

My top 5 hasn't changed in 20 years.

Pac
Big
Nas
Scarface
Ice Cube

Living rappers Nas is the GOAT.

Mine is mad similar, but I got Thought and 3000 instead of Cube and Big.

 

[DraymondT]

Day after nikkas lying through they teeth Nas ain't got replay value and no one goes back to his shyts Bron bumping Thief's Theme on IG

Just admit y'all weirdo anti Nas nikkas got shyt taste and keep it movin

 

[Wacky D]

if anything, hes overrated.

 

[NormanConnors]

Facts by Pap

 

[NormanConnors]

if anything, hes overrated.

 

[Awesome Wells]

An inconsistent discography and lack of hit records.

This here.

For those of us who’ve been around since Illmatic and before, there was a sharp decline in quality for Nas immediately after the first version of I Am leaked and didn’t drop. He was untouchable before ’99. His albums became hit or miss after that. And he was never really able to regain the following he had around ’96. IWW is still his best-selling album. God’s Son was his last actual platinum album. Street’s Disciple was certified platinum because it was a double album, shipped at a million, but actually sold about 700 and change. This was spoken about a lot back then. Half of the people who bought God's Son, didn't show up for Nas when he dropped again a couple years later. "Ether" brought in a lot of new fans for him, so he was rolling from Stillmatic to God's Son, but half of those same "fans" stopped buying his music after '03, and never came back.

After the 90’s, a lot of OG Nas fans found him boring. I see that said a lot all over NY and in barbershops here, and I can understand why they feel that way. He changed a lot since the first 9 years of his career (’91-’00). So less people started biggin’ him up in the way they did prior to that. But after “Ether”, he picked up a lot of white fans, for whatever reason. So his following online changed crazy, but that never really translated into actual hit records or huge sales for him.

The thing about Nas stans is, they’re not like the OG fans because they’re not really buying his music as much as his original fans. Over time, he picked up fans who say he’s the GOAT, but they don’t actually buy his shyt. And then he’s lost a lot of his original hardcore street fans who lived for the stuff he was doing ’93-’98. Which is probably why he doesn’t have many universally-lauded hit records. Nas has always been in my Top 10, he's been one of the greats forever, but I’ll be the first to admit that his catalog fell off dramatically from what we all expected it to be down the line after the first couple of albums. I don’t think his greatness gets downplayed at all, but he’s been mad inconsistent for awhile. Any true Nas fan knows that, anyone saying otherwise, is lying.

 

[Budda]

This here.

For those of us who’ve been around since Illmatic and before, there was a sharp decline in quality for Nas immediately after the first version of I Am leaked and didn’t drop. He was untouchable before ’99. His albums became hit or miss after that. And he was never really able to regain the following he had around ’96. IWW is still his best-selling album. God’s Son was his last actual platinum album. Street’s Disciple was certified platinum because it was a double album, shipped at a million, but actually sold about 700 and change. This was spoken about a lot back then. Half of the people who bought God's Son, didn't show up for Nas when he dropped again a couple years later. "Ether" brought in a lot of new fans for him, so he was rolling from Stillmatic to God's Son, but half of those same "fans" stopped buying his music after '03, and never came back.

After the 90’s, a lot of OG Nas fans found him boring. I see that said a lot all over NY and in barbershops here, and I can understand why they feel that way. He changed a lot since the first 9 years of his career (’91-’00). So less people started biggin’ him up in the way they did prior to that. But after “Ether”, he picked up a lot of white fans, for whatever reason. So his following online changed crazy, but that never really translated into actual hit records or huge sales for him.

The thing about Nas stans is, they’re not like the OG fans because they’re not really buying his music as much as his original fans. Over time, he picked up fans who say he’s the GOAT, but they don’t actually buy his shyt. And then he’s lost a lot of his original hardcore street fans who lived for the stuff he was doing ’93-’98. Which is probably why he doesn’t have many universally-lauded hit records. Nas has always been in my Top 10, he's been one of the greats forever, but I’ll be the first to admit that his catalog fell off dramatically from what we all expected it to be down the line after the first couple of albums. I don’t think his greatness gets downplayed at all, but he’s been mad inconsistent for awhile. Any true Nas fan knows that, anyone saying otherwise, is lying.

You wrote a whole load of trash, I can't lie.

 

[Budda]

if anything, hes overrated.

You definitely living up to your name.

 

[JustCKing]

Big name producers in itself don't make things commercial when you make certain songs. Breh was making songs about going at Fox News, fried chicken, aliens, project cockroaches

It doesn't, but songs like "Hero" and "Make The World Go Round" are commercial.

 

[prophecypro]

This here.

For those of us who’ve been around since Illmatic and before, there was a sharp decline in quality for Nas immediately after the first version of I Am leaked and didn’t drop. He was untouchable before ’99. His albums became hit or miss after that. And he was never really able to regain the following he had around ’96. IWW is still his best-selling album. God’s Son was his last actual platinum album. Street’s Disciple was certified platinum because it was a double album, shipped at a million, but actually sold about 700 and change. This was spoken about a lot back then. Half of the people who bought God's Son, didn't show up for Nas when he dropped again a couple years later. "Ether" brought in a lot of new fans for him, so he was rolling from Stillmatic to God's Son, but half of those same "fans" stopped buying his music after '03, and never came back.

After the 90’s, a lot of OG Nas fans found him boring. I see that said a lot all over NY and in barbershops here, and I can understand why they feel that way. He changed a lot since the first 9 years of his career (’91-’00). So less people started biggin’ him up in the way they did prior to that. But after “Ether”, he picked up a lot of white fans, for whatever reason. So his following online changed crazy, but that never really translated into actual hit records or huge sales for him.

The thing about Nas stans is, they’re not like the OG fans because they’re not really buying his music as much as his original fans. Over time, he picked up fans who say he’s the GOAT, but they don’t actually buy his shyt. And then he’s lost a lot of his original hardcore street fans who lived for the stuff he was doing ’93-’98. Which is probably why he doesn’t have many universally-lauded hit records. Nas has always been in my Top 10, he's been one of the greats forever, but I’ll be the first to admit that his catalog fell off dramatically from what we all expected it to be down the line after the first couple of albums. I don’t think his greatness gets downplayed at all, but he’s been mad inconsistent for awhile. Any true Nas fan knows that, anyone saying otherwise, is lying.

I think he changed his artistc direction for sure but I think why its still a debate about if he was inconsistent. Even if he was precieved consistent by some rap fans (Street NY dudes) or not, his albums after God Son still got decent to good critical acclaim. If it was more universally panned or seen as a dissapoint, this narrative would be stonger and for sure. You can correlate the change with sales decline but 90% of the game was declining in sales by the mid 2000s and he still sold decently (HHID close to 800k SD for 750k)
I also think most artists after a 10 year run arent gonna cool as they change direction but with Nas it seems to be a bigger scarlett letter on him for a natural cool off. I think also people do still appreciate him as an aging rapper for albums like Life is Good and King's Disease though.

So I think that why he still gets debated about, but I dont think dissmissing as new fans vs OG fans is a entirely fair take and just sounds like hipster gatekeeping lol