Nastalgia
Rick Ross teases Executive Producing Nas Album
- Thread starter JustCKing
- Start date
oh my god lol
To be fair it's not that ridiculous of a statement.
If you're talking pure sales damn near anything in his discography outsold it. At least in his early career.
But if you're talking about longevity....I don't see how anyone in their right mind can argue against "Illmatic". Dude can go on a tour and have the set list literally only be songs from "Illmatic"....he's done that....nobody is asking him to do a set list of "IWW" or anything else. Nobody is having him perform "Nastradamus" with a symphony orchestra. Nobody is asking for a sequel to any other album in his career.
I mean....he named his come back album "Stillmatic", for Christ sake.
His legacy for better or worse is "Illmatic". Record sales are fleeting....your legacy is what keeps you around 25+ years.
Fred.
MikeStamina
All Star
I get what you're saying, but Illmatic became as revered as it is with time because Nas's fan base grew with time. That doesn't happen without It Was Written or I Am... No one is asking for an IWW 2 because there was The Firm and I Am... A lot of people who are Nas fans now weren't introduced to Nas via Illmatic. It was later albums and they went back to that one and some walked away with the sentiment of "ok, I get the hype around that album" and it possibly became their favorite. Others still favor one Nas album or another over it. Illmatic got documentaries and an anniversary tour where he only played because of the 20th anniversary of the album (which Nas himself said he was tired of celebrating). A lot of this had to do with retroactive praise from the media who gave it glowing reviews upon release, but the commercial support of the album didn't match the acclaim until years down the line. They panned most of everything else he's done and the opposite happened. Several of those releases were commercially successfully in spite of the stigma that Nas had "sold out", "fallen off", "irrelevant", "lazy" or "didn't care anymore". Truth is Nas isn't consistently entering all time lists solely based on Illmatic. This is the MC who gave Hip Hop songs like "I Gave You Power", "Undying Love", "If I Ruled The World", "One Mic", "Rewind", etc. and went against the biggest MC at the time and won.
Eh....not really man.
"Illmatic" was revered from day 1. That's literally all it had going for it. Hip-hop media back then was calling Nas the second coming of Rakim.
When that's your introduction....it's damn near impossible to live up to those expectations.
I get what you're saying, as far as the other more commercially successful albums increased his fan base, and probably made people go back to "Illmatic"....which only increased it's stature....but if there is no "Illmatic" then there is nothing to go back to in the first place. Most people's introduction to Nas was "IWW" judging by the sales....yet no asks for a sequel to that. And it's not because of "The Firm" or "I Am". Both of which weren't well received, in real time.
And Nas dropped "Stillmatic" in 2001, before mainstream media had really jumped on the "Illmatic" hype train. So the idea that retroactive praise somehow played a role in Nas trying to "go back" to his glory days....is kinda silly.
Fred.
It’s like he never released IWW, Stillmatic, God Son, Lost Tapes, Distant Relatives, and Life is Good.
shyt naming these albums, I wonder who has more classics or near classics in their catalog?
Nas is nudged in a whole different curve than anyone else.
I know The Firm wasn't well received, but a lot of people liked I Am... and that was more of Nas Escobar and the mafiosos style he had going with IWW. That's why there's no need to ask for a sequel because there's not a huge jump stylistically from IWW and I Am... Nas dropped Illmatic and there's a huge jump from what he was doing with Illmatic and It Was Written (at least in the eyes of critics) and he continued moving further away from the sound of Illmatic with each album. So his answer to critics was Stillmatic. What I mean by the hype train, I'm talking about documentaries, tours, and re-releases.
Hopefully Ross coaches him on how to flow too
ISO
Pass me the rock nikka
Ross always has a dope sonic landscape and good sounding production and always has impeccable chemistry with whoever he features with. I trust him as an A&R and EP.
Nas ran to Ye and half assed a project.
ISO
Pass me the rock nikka
Yeah he low key needs a flow coach at this point of his career but nikkas don’t wanna hear that
triple beam dream
