Nas

Stillmatic

REGAINED THE SPARK

Review Score:

(10/10)
Okay, can you really lay all the blame on Nas for having an artistically inconsistent career from 1994-99? As "Nasty Nas" he released the hip-hop classic ILLMATIC in 1994. Now in a fair world, its dopeness should have been matched by its record sales, but it barely went gold. So he went commercial with his beat selection and debuted his glossy "Nas Escobar" persona in IT WAS WRITTEN (1996), which goes *ca-ching!* double platinum. But it was critically trounced and regarded as an indication of sophomore slump. Then he dropped I AM...THE AUTOBIOGRAPHY in 1999. Not that it was a terrible album, but it was treated with relative indifference, even after the whole controversy of him being crucified in the video for "Hate Me Now" (Shoot, if anything, I thought that was going to propel the album sales way past its platinum-plus status). Then, before the year ended, he released the atrocious NASTRADAMUS, an album that...well...just seemed to make little sense. It just seemed that Nas was indeed cursed. No matter what he did, he could not get two things together--critical praise and commercial success. It was either one or the other. And at worst, on certain occasions, he got neither.

Meanwhile Jay-Z, a rap star who, unlike Nas, is a commercial heavyweight but lacks lyrical depth, said in his scathing diss song "Takeover": "Had a spark when you started/But now you're just garbage/Went from top ten to not mentioned at all." What Jay-Z said in the third verse in that song confirmed the fears of even Nas's most devoted fans--he's gone pop, he's fallen off, he even got outrapped by his bodyguard in the awful "Oochie Wally."

Ouch. When you were the guy who outshone everyone in a posse track called "Live at the Barbeque" by saying stuff like "When I was twelve, I went to hell for snuffing J*s*s," when you have released arguably the best debut album in hip-hop history, when you were once heralded as the second coming of Rakim, and you get dissed like that, what do you do? Toughen up and retaliate.

Right after the blazing opening song "Stillmatic (Intro)" Nas does not waste time in hurling his lyrical fists of fury at Jay-Z in "Ether," decisively knocking him out for the count (irrespective of Jay-Z's weak reply "Superugly"). He defends his legacy ("How can Nas be garbage?/...Come out of my throne/I got this/Locked since `91/I'm the truest/Name a rapper that I ain't influence") while calling out Jay-Z for his `disrespect' of the Notorious B.I.G. ("First Biggie's your man/Then you got the nerve to say that you're better than Big/D**k-sucking lips/Won't you let the late great veteran live") his materialism-laden lyrics ("What's sad is I love you/ `Cause you're my brother/You traded your soul for riches"), his looks ("Whiskers like a rat") and for being outrapped himself--by Eminem in "Renegade" off his THE BLUEPRINT LP ("Eminem murdered you on your own s**t!"). The beat, provided by Ron Browz, is stripped-down--enough to let Nas' merciless lyrics to stand out. A clever retort from Queensbridge's finest.

But the fun does not stop there. He follows it with "Got Ur Self A...," which is an okay track, with its lively harpsichord-driven groove; and "Smokin'," a smoothed-out, bare-bones track produced by Nas himself. The best part of the album is right at the middle, though, track 5-10. Large Professor shows up for production on the splendid "You`re Da Man." Then "Rewind" follows, an instant classic. Here Nas, never short of ideas or concepts, tells a story Memento style--backwards. He gets introspective in "One Mic," which he co-produced and has his voice rising in the first two verses to a climax (He does the opposite with the third verse) before he calmly utters the simple chorus--"All I need is one mic." DJ Premier shows up for the thick funky bass of "2nd Childhood" in which Nas analysis certain scenarios of people making the wrong decisions. "Destroy and Rebuild," heavily influenced by the classic diss track "The Bridge Is Over" by Boogie Down Productions, has Nas admonishing Cormega (pal-turned-foe) and Mobb Deep (!) in some rather awkward effort to "clean up" Queensbridge. And he reunites with AZ in "The Flyest," their stellar performance reminiscent on their legendary first outing in "Life's A Bitch."

The album does falter a bit towards the end. Nas has good intentions in "Rule," taking on everything from racism to world peace, but the blatant sample (from "Everybody Wants To Rule The World") is ill-fitting. "My Country" is also not horrible, but Nas could have done without the uncredited guest, who has an annoying flow and really does not say anything substantial to add to Nas's social views. It is a good thing STILLMATIC ends strongly, though, with the strong and soulful drums clothing more of Nas's social outtakes in "What Goes Around" and a far more competent guest rapper complements him in the bonus track "Every Ghetto." Overall this is one of Nas's best LPs, and a classic in its own right nonetheless. Nas regained his spark with this one. Here's hoping he retains it.

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