Album simply was boring and not very good musically. The people who I come across that like this album are the ones who care more about the message on than the actual music. If you are not someone who gets your news through music, I really do not see how this can possibly be one of the top Nas albums. Half of it is literally mundane and unlistenable despite highlights like Y'all My nikkas and Black President. As a kid who was in college at the time, there was not a single thing Nas was saying on this album that my friends and I had not spoken of or that I did not grasp from my studies. It was like a boring and less in-depth recap of some African and African-American studies classes.
A 13 year old me would have loved it because it would have made me think, but not at 18 or 19 (I forget). By that point, music was either good or bad to me, a good message could not save an album that was not pleasing to the ears. I literally only know 2 people (Nas fans included) that play this album. But I get that my circle may be biased. But I just find it a perfect example of an album hailed for its ambition more so than its execution, and yet I appreciate it for the layer it brings to hip hop.
Its interesting you compare it to what you were thinking in college cause I remember a lot of my friends loved it for that reason. Here's the thing: Its an album that's sonically unambitious and thats where it has its faults but the message and the guy carrying is good enough to ignore that depending on one's preference as a Hip Hop fan (Although I think it has a far a more consistent sound at least than HHID which was up and down with the beats, but still not concentrated like Life is Good which despite you saying in other posts you wasnt feeling either was his most focused and consistent sounding album since the Stillmatic-Lost Tapes-God Son era and if people are honest since even Street's Disciple which I think was better than his first 2 Def Jam albums)
The thing is for a lot of fans of Hip Hop, having a message they care about is more compelling than the structure of an album. Granted that's a very basic and somewhat outdated viewpoint in a post Kanye world where you should be able to have both, but this is why guys like K'naan, Kweli and Mos Def still have a fanbase or why people liked the Distant Relatives album despite also having a very basic and safe message. Or hell why Dead Prez is beloved and Let's Get Free is considered a classic despite the fact that at the time of its released it actually got some rough reviews for it (fitting then that they did the bulk of this Nas album) Again the fact that he had a lot of concept records that he applied to these somewhat known conscious subject matter probably helped it a lot (Fried Chicken, Project Roach, Sly Fox). and for the most part there was more organic sounds than glossy ones on the album (Mostly the Remi , Toomp and Jay Electronica tracks as opposed to the Mark Baston, Stargate, Polow, Cool and Dre and sadly Dead Prez ones)
But this is what I mean by it being his most polarizing album truly: You said its his most boring, others have said its his most deep, compelling and refreshing and it all boils to to the fact that this was probably the closest he came to making a full on conscious album. It brought out an aspect of Nas that some of his fans really love and some of this fan's really hater as a preacher
I'd be curious especially since all the things that have happened this year if he would consider doing a sequel to Untitled. Working with No ID in recent years and having Anthony Saleh give him a young person's vote of confidence I think has helped in tremendously in the 2010's to be sharp as a rapper and focused as a person. Although his recent Post-LIG appearances arent as lyrically monstrous as his 2011-2013 run of appearances, I think having his sights on Mass Appeal after the next album finally have him loosen up to not make commercial records so it wouldn't have a We make The World Go Round
