Nas

Stillmatic

Nas- the true king

Review Score:

(10/10)
It's hard to forget how Nas betrayed both his hardcore audience and artistic sensibilities for the glamor of commercial MTV-friendly rap. While the suburbs were able to enjoy the cris-poppin' bloated hasbeen's endless rapping about girls, cars, and champagne, the streets were just not feeling it, and in the interim, they crowned their new rap king, Jay-Z. Soon, Nas also lost the charts to Jigga and his career seemed to be over. But wait, after being humiliated by Jay-Z on "The Takeover," Nas fights back by dropping "Ether" on his enemies, and his career is revived. The album that contains this fierce dis track is far from perfect, but does manage to capture some of Illmatic's brilliance while also managing to update the thug poet's sound. On tracks like "Rule," and "Got Ur Self A..." the production is too slick, and isn't flattering to the flow or lyrics of the emcee who once rode DJ Premier and Large Professor beats to perfection. In terms of production value, the best beats can be found on "Destroy and Rebuild," (dissing unfaithful QB comrades), "2nd Childhood" (courtesy of DJ Premier), and "Rewind." Nas' lyrics are on point throughout, and venture ambitiously further to cover not only the politics of the projects, but politics and society in general (including U.S. foreign policy). Nas even lets AZ who first appeared on Nas' 1994 Illmatic album get some shine on the "Flyest." While it can't live up to the Illmatic legacy, "Stillmatic" is still light-years ahead of just about everything else going on in mainstream hip-hop. Call it a come back.

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