47. "Great counterpoints. No argument from me. Just..." In response to In response to 44
a different opinion in this particular case.
That said, I am 100% in agreement with you in that an artist should progress and grow with each release, which is why even though I think Illmatic is the better record, I was glad that Nas took the logical step forward in his career with IWW rather than just rehashing what gained him critical acclaim with the first joint.
I say this with a lot of artists, the most recent and prominent example being Kanye West. I loved his first three albums and have found his last three to be wildly inconsistent and pretentious. But, at the same time, I am VERY happy that he continues to grow and change rather than just rehashing what worked in the beginning and brought him success. Because of his ambition we've gotten gems like Runaway among the rough that was MBDPF (in my opinion, of course). He could have easily done what the label(s) wanted him to do and kept making songs in the vein of Get By/I Try/This Way/etc. and got that quick dough while never really doing anything interesting and flaming out quickly. I prefer the direction he took even if my thoughts on his recent output are less positive than my thoughts on his first 3 joints.
So yea - while I still think Illmatic is the far superior product, I can agree with you that I'd rather see an artist try and fail at moving forward, than see them rehash the same formula over and over again just because it worked. Which is why I prefer artists like Nas and Common over others who never changed it up and tried new things.