Nas

God's Son

Not quite a classic... yet...

Review Score:

(8/10)
Over the course of Nas' prolific career, the man's had his ups and downs. Album after album, his skills have been endlessly compared to what he brought forth on Illmatic, which is totally unfair since it's a bonafide classic. But lately, hip hop heads have finally learned to live in the now and accept that Nas will continue to grow instead of holding on to the past. He's released three rap gems in a row (Stillmatic, Lost Tapes and this one) which is an incredible feat in this day and age of music, especially hip hop.

But, of course, there always has to be some schmuck out there who has to compare Nas to Jay-Z since their beef started a couple years ago. To me, they're two entirely different emcees; Jay-Z is a master wordsmith who uses clever metaphors and vocal charisma, whereas I think Nas is probably the best street poet since Tupac's passing. In other words, I think Nas is a little deeper than Jay-Z, so if I had to choose between the two, I'd go with Mr. Jones for the fact that he doesn't have to rely on the old "playing with words" trick to entice you. For the most part, he just lays it out for you and at best, he's absolutely enthralling.

I'd recommend God's Son for those of you radio fans who are getting a little sick of hearing 50's mindless In Da Club (the only reason he sells is because of Dre). You can probably do better than this album if you look hard enough, but you can also do a heck of a lot worse.

By the way, for the closed-minded individuals out there: rap IS music. If you silly people would quit basing your opinions of the genre on what you hear on a saturday night on your local rap station, you'd understand that. Don't follow the hip hop hating trend. It's tired. Keep your ears open and *gasp* you might actually like it.

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