Rick Ross teases Executive Producing Nas Album

[spliz]

Ross is what Nas Escobar should have been, so it makes sense. Hopefully if it happens it has an Escobar, cinematic mob boss feel to it

Nas Escobar >>>>> Ross.

 

[spliz]

Explain, please. The whole drug baron/mob boss, fly dressed gangster shooting videos at beautiful locations and shyt, that was Nas Escobar's whole vibe. Rick Ross maintained that gimmick longer than Nas, Nas still dabbles in it but I dont think he wanted to make a career out of it like Ross has

That was just some creative shyt Nas was doing. He didn’t wanna make a career out of it. Which is why he switched it up next album over. It’s not like he needed to considering how successful he was with Esco. He just felt like it.

 

[spliz]

Reminds me of a recent podcast

I feel like putting out a podcast that completely obliterated this whole argument. And tagging them in it.

 

[spliz]

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.

If IWW came out first. Different discussion. If IWW never came out. Nas wouldn’t be able to tour Illmatic. Not at the level he does anyway.

 

[spliz]

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.

“They said I should make another Illmatic, but it’s only forward I’m movin, never backwards stupid here’s another classic”. That’s what he says in the intro to “Stillmatic”. That shyt was damn near a sarcastic title. IWW got the same Source rating as Reasonable Doubt in real time. I Am got the same Source rating as Ready To Die in real time. Something ain’t adding up fam. His career history is being retroactively rewritten.

 

[spliz]

Yeah he low key needs a flow coach at this point of his career but nikkas don’t wanna hear that

Almost all these new young nikkas in the game is more out of pocket than him unless we talkin bout Cole, Kendrick n them. But I don’t never hear nobody say shyt.

 

[spliz]

Yea Illmatic was called a classic album from the jump. No big singles. But it had some of the top east coast producers at the time and a young MC rhyming his ass off sounding wiser than his age. 5 mics in the Source back when that meant something. I would say that Source rating was the main reason people checked for the that album in the first place. It’s been the gift and curse of his career tho

All of this and nikkas ain’t go support it with money. They bootlegged it. All of this and the same publication that gave him the 5 mics snubbed him at the their award show. In 2 categories. All cause of industry politics. Yea. fukk them useless accolades he got.

 

[ISO]

I Am isn’t a trash album

Anyway there’s no point in talking about old Nas albums.

It’s about Nas moving forward as a legacy act in the 2020’s and what direction he’s going to go in his mid to late 40’s.

 

[spliz]

No offense to the dude that brought them up, but most people that talk about mic ratings wasn't even around back then.

There's a reason The Source retroactively changed the ratings of a gang of albums. Because how the albums were really received, didn't match what The Source said. If The Source was some indisputable authority then there's no reason to do that.

And a gang of people that got into Nas post-"IWW" was mainstream and/or casual rap fans. Not saying their opinion is completely irrelevant but it didn't dictate anything, at the time.

Fred.

Streets fukked wit I Am heavy. I know because too many people tried to get that up off me or have me dub it for them. I was also a DJ at the time. I know people who had I Am as their fav Nas album. He didn’t truly get bad reception until Nastradamus.

 

[hex]

If IWW came out first. Different discussion. If IWW never came out. Nas wouldn’t be able to tour Illmatic. Not at the level he does anyway.

We can't really switch the two around ("IWW" and "Illmatic") without going down a rabbit hole of "what if's?". Because the entire hip-hop landscape would have to be different, for "IWW" to come out prior to "Illmatic".

So is this assuming "IWW" was a more polished, commercial success....and "Illmatic" was still considered the crowning achievement of his career? If "IWW" never came out, what came out in place of it? The album Marley Marl was supposed to produce?

Just trying to figure out the specifics of what you're saying.

Streets fukked wit I Am heavy. I know because too many people tried to get that up off me or have me dub it for them. I was also a DJ at the time. I know people who had I Am as their fav Nas album. He didn’t truly get bad reception until Nastradamus.

I never said the streets didn't fukk with it. I said the driving force behind his career, post-"Illmatic", was casual hip-hop fans. "The streets" are not going to make an album do 450k or whatever it was, first week. That's damn near impossible. At that point you're obviously tapping into other demographics. That goes for any artist, in any genre in history. Cats are not going 2-3x plat off hip-hop fans.

Fred.

 

[newworldafro]

I've literally said this up here half a dozen times.

 

[Yagirlcheatinonus]

Nas over Madlib would be dope

 

[Piff Perkins]

If IWW came out first. Different discussion. If IWW never came out. Nas wouldn’t be able to tour Illmatic. Not at the level he does anyway.

Hard to make a hindsight argument like that. IWW was a classic example of a sophomore rap album getting a major budget increase by a major label. It would be impossible for IWW to be the first album...it wouldn't have been the same album at all.

My general view...every artist wants an album like Illmatic, but few get it. Nas could tour Illmatic to this day, no matter what albums came after it. GZA was doing anniversary tours for Liquid Swords for years, and we all know what the rest of his (album) career looked like. The thing that took Nas to another level of fame (and fans) was IWW and some of the albums and hits that came afterwards, which propelled his longevity in a way that only Illmatic could not do. Illmatic provides 8 sure-fire songs on your set list...in an era where many acts can't even do 10 songs live that people want to hear, having 8 off your first album alone is an amazing advantage. Then you add the hits+fan favorites and you have a setlist you can tour for decades...which is what Nas has done. I may quibble about the lack of hits or "songs that matter" on later albums but end of the day Nas can put together a 20-25 song set list that's stronger than most rap set lists.

What does Nas' set list or career look like if he had kept putting out "real hip hop" albums that no one really bought and didn't have future hits? He'd be OC. No disrespect to OC obviously, he has great albums. But you get my point. I think a lot of those rap purists wanted that though.

 

[KravenMorehead™]

oh my god lol

 

[Piff Perkins]

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.

I'd argue IWW and I Am are very differently stylistically. IWW is great but if I have a criticism it's very how one note the album is thematically. It's almost entirely mafioso shyt and the drums are rather mixed. I Am has some of that but also has more introspective tracks reminiscent of Illmatic, anthems, and a variety of obvious mainstream track shows that range from trash (Big Things) to interesting (You Won't See Me Tonight). Plus a return to harder drums. The variety leads to it being a mixed and unfocused album but the diversity of sounds is interesting.