Nas album leaked?

[aloivas]

(which, ironically, was a lot more effective in Illmatic, with his realism rapping of his observations).

I think this is a good point.

sometimes you take the arrogant route and never offer your own opinion or form any point of discussion like some teacher who just asks questions in front of students without offering any of their own opinions. you're trying to make a point, so just write something and explain it and justify it.

roaches should be a journalist. he has a unique ability in that his writing style is such that it allows him to reiterate his points beyond their worth. he could have no solid arguments in a 3 page essay however the way he writes could force someone to change their opinion on a particular subject. not saying he doesn't have some good points in this thread, and that i don't agree with him, but damn he makes a motherfucker rethink his position in certain occasions.

 

[Da_Funk]

I'm getting annoyed that none of the people who think Nas is a genius can step up and make a case for him. This board sucks.

Whats the point? I like it. I'm not gonna write an essay to explain why I like it because really I don't give a fuck. If you don't like it, thats cool I don't really give a fuck either. Listen to whatever you want at the end of the day it doesn't effect me. I just think its stupid that people try and disrespect nas because he can rap circles around 99% of the people out there.

 

[Espiv]

bottom line is, he fell off, and hard.

 

[roaches]

For the sake of the arguement though lets chit chat about it. His flow is bad where exactly? Maybe Queens? If you bring up Testify smack yourself for being stupid.

It's definitely at its most blatant on Queens - Nas ain't shit without the drum. That also stands out more because for all his failings over his career Nas usually comes correct with a hot intro.

What I've noticed most is the failure of his flow to accomodate his own sloppy writing - he has a tendency to write too much or too little to fit the beat and he does this weird schizophrenic thing where he might rush and cram a bunch of words into one bar or just start... talking... slowly.

I understand that what he did on "Testify" was deliberate so I'll give it a pass, but damn if that shit ain't boring. Only Face and Devin have the delivery to do that sort of thing, I think.

who has a good flow and who has a bad one and how do you determine, from a "technical" point of view, the difference in ability?

Great flow: Rakim, Kane, early Snoop, Rick
Bad flow: Biz Markie, RZA, Talib Kweli

Not great flows: Pharoahe Monch, Ice Cube, Chuck D
Not even gonna go there flow: BTNH
Technically impeccable flow: Big L, Black Thought

I don't know how you quantify it or put it on a scale or anything. Rapping hasn't been around long enough to be broken down or discussed or analyzed. We don't even have the vocabulary for it yet. At this point, the discerning listener just has to develop their ear and trust it. For me, flow is just the discipline of a rapper's pacing of their words and their ability to sync it to whatever they're rapping too, or, if acapella, a rhythm.

sometimes you take the arrogant route and never offer your own opinion or form any point of discussion like some teacher who just asks questions in front of students without offering any of their own opinions. you're trying to make a point, so just write something and explain it and justify it.

Ya know, I did offer my opinion in this thread and people have called me an idiot and shit but no one can explain to me why my opinion's wrong, just that it is.

he could have no solid arguments in a 3 page essay

It's the hip-hop in me. I can sound fly without saying anything. I'm thinking about breaking into political speechwriting.

 

[ARon]

UK Bonus Track.

zSHARE - 01-nas-like_me__bonus_track.mp3

Yup!

 

[linx]

Not great flows: Pharoahe Monch

whyyyyyyyyyy?

 

[_carmi]

I listened to it again, and meh apart from a couple of songs the album is real boring.

Oh and I quite like the Hero song, I know some people don't.

Same here.

And yeah I think Nas isn't what he used to be. Maybe because he delivered better flow and better rhymes before? Maybe. I never really liked Nas. Some people think Nas is superior because he delivered what, one or two excellent albums? But what about his other releases? AVERAGE at its best.

Nas tries to be controversial to sell more, Is he really controversial? Not really. Some rappers can pull it well (Eminem for example), but some others (like Nas) just can't.

And I gave a couple of listens to Untitled. It was painful and boring.

It's sad? Not really. I expected nothing less from Nas and nothing more.

 

[linx]

Carmi, put the Nas albums in order from best to worse in your opinion for me. Then put why you think each one is good/bad.

 

[Preach]

whyyyyyyyyyy?

i stumbled at that too. i didn't hold "desire" in the same high regards as yourself, but i love how he flows over that one dance sounding track. bomb baby? baby bomb? something something.

 

[linx]

i stumbled at that too. i didn't hold "desire" in the same high regards as yourself, but i love how he flows over that one dance sounding track. bomb baby? baby bomb? something something.

How much did you enjoy that album? To me, it was just a great album. I didn't know what to expect beforehand, but when I listened.. wow.

 

[Preach]

"desire" is an album that was granted a rare advantage on my behalf. occasionally i'll pop on an album and actually listen to the whole album, back to front, in one session. it's normally coincidental, i was making a website and playing the album in the background. it must have repeated at least a couple of times. like you i didn't really know what to expect. there's certain greats whose music i haven't really had the pleasure to get to know very well, and organized konfusion is one of those, so all i pretty much had to go on was that training day track.

i think i hear why you consider the album to be solid. without considering lyrical content, every song fits on the album. soundwise, it's as if the whole album was done in-house to me. that's a nice achievement in itself, considering at least half a dozen producers were involved. in fact, i'll go as far as saying it's a quality that in itself that, to me, can make an average album better, or a bad album average. let's go is one of my favorite tracks off the album, simply because the mental imagery the music provides is beautiful to me. even if it gets a little crowded at times. a friend played me that track and told me monch is asthmatic, which prompted me to download the album in the first place. it caught my interest, what can i say, i root for the underdog lol. i rate it a 6, or maybe as high as a 7, out of 10.

edit: another thought i never got to air is that i always considered "body baby" to be an oddity hip-hop track. a clash between genres, like jay-z and linkin park. some other type shit. the instrumental would probably sound utterly wack on it's own, but the rhythm does not resemble hip-hop to me. maybe technically it does, but the song always sounded "different" to me.

 

[linx]

I see.

To me, Monch has always been one of the best lyricists in the game. He's just fucking ridiculous. I've always thought Big Daddy Kane was an originator and he was the best. One of the first dudes to be dope like THAT. While he still is one of the first and one of the best, I think comparing someone like Monch to him isn't out of the question.

As far as the album goes, I loved it because it had a different sound than the rest of the Hip Hop you hear today. You don't hear shit like that. I gotta admit too that when I saw/heard him perform most (maybe all) of the album live, I absolutely fucking loved it. It was just an absolutely amazing performance. Keep in mind i've seen a lot of people perform live. I've seen Jay-Z, DMX, Nas twice, Wu Tang as a group twice, Method Man probably 8 times, Redman 3 times, Beanie Sigel, Memphis Bleek, Ghostface 4 times, Raekwon probably 2-3 times, Little Brother 3 times, Apathy & Demigodz, Sean Price, Immortal Technique, Jedi Mind Tricks, Mos Def, Talib Kweli, Cypress Hill, Rakim, Bootcamp Clik and more. I'm only naming most of the people i've seen cause I want to really make it clear that i've seen a lot of live performances and me saying Pharoahe was amazing and the best i've seen means more than just a little bit. Him with the live band was fucking dope. I still HAVE to see The Roots.

All the effort and all the emotion he put into his performance just made it what it was. He wasn't up there not saying the last part of each bar with a hype man behind him. He did it all himself. The title track is ridiculous too mann. :thumb:

 

[_carmi]

Carmi, put the Nas albums in order from best to worse in your opinion for me. Then put why you think each one is good/bad.

I can't be bothered to do that right now. It's all about tastes. I'm not a Nas fan. I already find him boring usually, but on Untitled, it's just flagrant.

Some day I'll review all the albums of Nas, put them in order and say pros and cons of each of them.

 

[linx]

I'm not a Nas fan.

K, understood. Please don't bother then.