Was it the drugs and liquor that did him in? Was it the
marriage to Kelis?

Was it hopping on the shining suit era and associating with the likes of puffy
and going somewhat commercial?

Why did his albums and subject matter get wacker and wacker?

Nas isn’t wack. This isn’t about that. We know he can rhyme, but he kept
rhyming about the same thing, and didn’t evolve after illmatic.

Most dope MCs get better as they continue to make music. Common
got doper and doper after “ Can I borrow a dollar.” Rakim continued
making classic albums after “Paid in Full”.

Example: Common has five classic albums in my book:

Communism
It will all make sense
Like water for chocolate
Be
Finding Forever
And then add on the Rawkus and blackstar joints.

He just kept getting doper an doper until he got old.

I also put Raekwon in that same category, everything after “Only Built for Cuban
Linx” is not as good.

Nasty Nas is a god to me. But regular Nas is not as good. Nas doesn’t have another
Album that is as potent as Illmatic.


Have a nice weekend.

The original I Am... would’ve been his 3rd straight classic.

He was rapping at an elite level all the way through Life Is Good, and even a few years after that he was smashing those guest verses and one off singles.

Every rapper isn’t for everybody?

Finding Forever is mediocre to me.

I prefer his rapping on IWW over Illmatic. I know I'm in the minority. Never understood the people who say he regressed lyrically on that album. 96 Nas was at his best imo.

1994 is Illmatic, all the illustrative street shit we loved Nas for

1995 is Raekwon & Mobb Deep, hardcore violent rap

1996 is Reasonable Doubt, Jay Z instantly upped the ante having a slick wit and a sharp tongue. he would go on to outwork Nas dropping an album every year for 8 years straight

1996 is also It Was Written where Nas becomes a star with cheesy radio hits

The War Report (Capone & Noreaga) ran 1997, jiggy rap has no place if you arent signed to Bad Boy


then DMX happened in 1998, the biggest name in rap until Eminem in 2000, he represented the streets globally

meanwhile Nas dropped two albums of trash in 1999 and he was irrelevant until damn near 2002

in the end he's dropped far more trash than high quality material

All jokes aside. You make some really good points.

>1994 is Illmatic, all the illustrative street shit we loved
>Nas for
>
>1995 is Raekwon & Mobb Deep, hardcore violent rap
>
>1996 is Reasonable Doubt, Jay Z instantly upped the ante
>having a slick wit and a sharp tongue. he would go on to
>outwork Nas dropping an album every year for 8 years straight
>
>1996 is also It Was Written where Nas becomes a star with
>cheesy radio hits
>
>The War Report (Capone & Noreaga) ran 1997, jiggy rap has no
>place if you arent signed to Bad Boy
>
>
>then DMX happened in 1998, the biggest name in rap until
>Eminem in 2000, he represented the streets globally
>
>meanwhile Nas dropped two albums of trash in 1999 and he was
>irrelevant until damn near 2002
>
>in the end he's dropped far more trash than high quality
>material
>
>

It Was Written (the start of the Steve Stoute effect) was the summer before Big died

other artists?

Jay Z wasnt a fill in for Biggie, he held his own on multiple collabs they did

would've had to have been different...

>Jay Z wasnt a fill in for Biggie, he held his own on multiple
>collabs they did

o, it's allstah.

that was the vibe. he changed with the times. using trackmasters type beats to fit into the scene. not that that's all bad. just not the 'underground' or more grimy sound he came with.

his rhymes haven't been much of an issue. for me, it's beats. seems like him and pac have the same issue picking beats.

You’re a fucking clown

Communism is on Resurrection.

You’re proving to be a complete idiot in every other aspect of your posts.

You have a great anonymous weekend.

Lost original login....Smutboy can vouch for that ,as well as all
the circle jerk laker fans on the sports board. Lol

I think a lot of original posts were lost when the board crashed or some
shit.

I left around 2009-2010 or someshit...lost the original allstah login...created another one in 2014

And came back to the boards in 2019.

Lyrically Nas on It Was Written, Gods Son, and Untitled was still miles ahead of rappers.

The idea he regressed is unfounded and a case of "if you repeat a lie long enough...."

Daddy Hov said it and the streets ran with it.

It just had the typical double album issues.

Nas got wacker and Common got DOPER!?!?!?!

WHOSE MANS IS THIS????!?!?!?!?

Go take a mental bath.


Common’s joints bang beat for beat ...and the rhymes?


Bye, Felicia.

And Bitch in you (havoc version) >>>>Ether

Common/the roots/Kweli/mos were on a roll from
97 to focking like 2007!

Nas was dropping a lot of garbage.

Nas wasn’t popping for a long time. Ether was the record that brought him into play
again.

The hottest shit in NY went jA rule-DMX-JAY-50-DIPSET-FAB-Kanye

And in the underground it was: Roots-Monch-Dilla-SLum V- Common-Mos-Talib
DOOM( came in 99). That Rawkus shit had everyone going crazy.

From like 97-2007 NAS wasn’t popping like everyone else....other then Ether/jay z shit
Nas fell to the back. You can’t hate me now bullshit wasn’t well received at all.

.

Like in interviews and stuff. Maybe wait til after work to light up. Like the rest of us

why not make a post on Raekwon then or GZA or Jay who imo has never matched Reasonable Doubt?


Basically Nas and Jay are the only rappers from the golden era still relevant at all, bothers you somehow. Jay is way more mainstream then Nas but Nas still gets his props and glory by the hiphop community and some reason it makes you mad. Snoop doesn't get talked about here as much when his new stuff drops, Cube's albums are complete shit these days. I love Rakim but since 97 he's been absolute doo-doo. I also love Common's early stuff to Be but since then I could care less and don't even care to check out anything new from him now.

Life is Good >>> Finding Forever

Seemed like he was trying to chase that club hit/song of the summer money instead of focsing on what he does best (bars).

that's what makes you so corny

you could have said all that without mentioning Kelis

i fucking can't stand immature misogynist dudes like you...ugh

and yes you're getting this energy EVERY TIME i see this dumbass shit.

d

"But rest assured, in my luxurious house built on the backs of people darker than me, I am sipping fine scotch and scoffing at how stupid you are." - bshelly

Not one bit, you’re the only person to assume something that infantile.
You’re the ONLY one.

The focus here is NAS, and the reason why I said kelis’ name is because he was
he was only married once. And marriage in itself can’t take its toll on a person.

It has nothing to do with Kelis as a person or a woman.


Next time ask. And take that crap somewhere else.
This is where assumption gets you. Talk Nas or get the fock out.

Have a nice weekend.

"But rest assured, in my luxurious house built on the backs of people darker than me, I am sipping fine scotch and scoffing at how stupid you are." - bshelly

a negative impact on his art. Are there examples of this happening to other artists?


Death to dinner date mathematicians

with some GREAT fucking songs on it.

allstah is in here being

a) a troll
b) a hater
c) willfully ignorant
d) all of the above

They heavily drank and did drugs. Abuse was involved, and the divorce process
was difficult as well.

That would tremendously affect someone’s career.

Example: Lauryn Hill.

Would there have been a different creative output had he not been involved
in an acrimonious marriage? We will never know.

But to say that someone’s personal life would not have an affect on their
career would be highly incorrect...,History has given us too many examples.

by that point Ether/Gods Son had came out and he had redeemed himself in the public eye


Based on statements that Nas and Kelis had made apparently it was a very volatile/unhealthy relationship and probably took a toll on them personally, but I don't know how much that had a negative impact on their musical output

>by that point Ether/Gods Son had came out and he had redeemed
>himself in the public eye
>
>
>Based on statements that Nas and Kelis had made apparently it
>was a very volatile/unhealthy relationship and probably took a
>toll on them personally, but I don't know how much that had a
>negative impact on their musical output

...that's all you need to know. ...Besides Salaam Remi, Nas hasn't done himself any favors production wise since Illmatic (besides a scattered amount of Premier and Large pro)

I don’t do top 5 MC lists. Or I try not to do them. They didn’t exist pre millennium.
We never focused on that. Full Albums were more important.

...IWW is a great record on its own, but was also one of the biggest disappointments when it dropped (NOT what anyone asked for from Nas production wise) ...I Am (bootleg or not) wasn't as good ...Every record after that has been pretty lackluster with the exception of some Salaam Remi collaborations

I loved Illmatic and was sour on a lot of his work because it wasn’t “Illmatic 2.0”

I think folk just have a hard time understanding how hard it is to put together a classic album.

Illmatic was also 8 songs I think.. and when albums started having 20 tracks it opened up more spots for wack beats.

IMO if Nas would just let Rick Ross pick his beats his catalog would’ve been untouchable.

He'd have 10 Illmatics. He never fell off..the productions did.

https://medium.com/@pierzy/the-day-the-music-died-5a975edb9ab1

"The ideology of what I considered ‘real’ hip-hop died at the 1995 Source Awards. I was literally at its funeral — I sat three rows behind Nas. In the audience, the Bad Boy camp was on the far right, all the West Coast and the Southern rappers were in the middle, and on the far left were all the New York underground rappers like Wu-Tang, Mobb Deep, Nas, Busta Rhymes, and us. That was the day when Suge called out Puffy, and there were fights in the audience. I felt like a bomb was going to detonate.

Nas’ body language that day told the whole story of where we were about to go. The more he got ignored for Illmatic, I literally saw his body melt in his seat. Almost like he was ashamed. He just looked so defeated. I was like, ‘Yo, he’s not gonna be the same after this shit.’ None of us were the same after that day. I feel like the true underground lost its oxygen that night."

.

a long time ago, that's where i remember it from.

i think it was archived. But he told that story here YEARS ago

I know The Source was a big reason Nas received so much hype. They said he was the next Rakim.. and Illmatic didn’t disappoint.

But the actual radio and clubs were already headed in a different direction and award show or not.. the writing was on the wall. Rap was going mainstream and that West Coast sound and Puffy’s shiny suit shit was taking off.

Very easy to believe too

Yikes

Nas may not have made another classic album but he had a ton of songs that are classics. He didnt regress. Times changed. Music changed. All the artists you said got better eventually changed themselves.

It came in at number 1 on the billboard chart/ r and b chart/ and rap chart.
and sold 155,000 units in its first week. And it was nominated
for 3 Grammys. Won a Grammy for best rap duo single.
Certified Gold.

Rolling stone -3.5 stars
Spin -4 stars

If you didn’t like like it ,cool, but to say it wasn’t a classic , you’re
bugging hard. Was it as dope as Be or Like Water for Chocolate?
No. Slightly below those, but still a dope classic album and his most
successful one.

Grammys. Dominates ALL charts in its first week, and then goes
on to go gold and gets high ratings?

Distinctive Travels isn’t as dope as Low End Theory, but both
are still classic albums.

That’s a classic album in my book.

and Tribes first album was a classic because it was their first album and it was dope af.

They had a brand new sound

Finding Forever was a good album. I like it. But it aint no classic.

Like Water.. now thats a classic album.

For me it’s a classic album with a great blend of hip hop and soul.

- so far to go
- black maybe
- south side ( won a Grammy)
- the people.

I put it under Be and Like water for Chocolate.

I’m from Chicago. So every rhyme and topic has a certain connection.

but I’m also a PE fan

“Who gives a damn about a gotdamn grammy” - Flav

after God Son (i think)...,

I agree that Common was initially getting better with every release until EC... with Be and going forward he kind of went on auto pilot..

I would have liked Nas to be more experimental like Q Tip , Pharoahe Monch, Andre 3000, Mos Def etc... but I dont think he has that type versatility... a top lyricist like GZA, but not a top overall MC imo

Agreed. Common just kept evolving up until EC. He made a HUGE leap after
“Can I Borrow A Dollar.” And when ODIWAMS dropped, I was like okay this dude
can battle anyone on the planet. “Hungry” is a dope battle rhyme record.

Every ill MC needs a dope beatmaker to push him, and NO ID and Dilla always laced
Common.

Nas was very weak in that department.

You just argued Finding Forever was a classic, then agreed with a post saying Common went on autopilot (and essentially stopped evolving, got boring, or fell off) with Electronic Circus and the following albums. And even said "this is a real hip hop head"

He doesn’t need to like Be or Finding Forever. However, he agrees
that Common evolved after his first album and Nas didn’t, which was
the point of the thread.

Common got doper after “Can I borrow a dollar”. Nas didn’t release anything
close to illmatic.

Where he feels Common plateaued later on is irrelevant.

That has always been the knock on Nas. This is nothing new.

you put words in his mouth.

and real talk, I think its like JayZ saying he could do a Kweli or a Common but.. that isn’t his lane.

Look at QTip.. dude said after all those dope albums he had a few G’a in his pocket. Which is why he did Vibrant Thing.

While I was upset we didnt get Illmatic 2 and 3, I understand completely.

OC said he would rather have respect than a bunch of money.. “its the principle of it”

Ask OC today and I bet he would like to have one hot album where he cashed in on his success.

which is a question mark on Nas’ ability to evolve, or that
he isn’t sure that Nas evolved up until that point.

Things that are a sure thing don’t come with a cloud of doubt.

There are lot of question marks and doubt in regards to Nas’
legacy after illmatic.

Clown post.

"Distinctive" is an entirely different word.

You dumb as shit

LOL

.

Too fucking good.

"Get ready....for your blessing....."
"Bury me by my Grand-Grand and when you can come follow me"

RE: Labcabinconnecticut

Gluten Free

And I'm not even joking on that opinion

because of the many styles and genres that he created. He
is the father of so many lyrical forms.

Illmatic is the better album, and one of the greatest. So I have to disagree.

Featuring the hit singles:

"Jennifer & The Juice" & "Loitering was the Case"

...

.