well yeah, I just always thought Nas takes it one step further. i'll say that i love tupac's music, and he had a lot of the same tendencies. a tupac song called "candy" could have the same lyrics as a tupac song called "i kill you, sucker". he scribbled down words and took the most recurrent theme in his lyrics and used as a name and chorus for the song. likewise, i feel like a lot of nas' songs could have been called something completely different. the experience is not what the track title would have me think, and not in the good, innovative way. i can't say the same for most rappers though, even though not every line and word has to do with the theme of the song.
i have all of nas' albums and most of his cd and vinyl singles on my computer. i hoard like that with every artist. so obviously i think nas is good enough for a listen, and the odd nas song is in my personal classics list, but considering the amount of material and years in the game i feel like he's overrated.
and furtherer, i felt that this song epitomized why i some times dislike nas as a lyricist, and like i said the beat sounds too kanye-ish for me. again, i thought bittersweet poetry was a corny but nice track, i think can't tell me nothing is an alright track. but kanye's branch in hiphop is not a "subgenre" i'm crazy about.
