Nas

Street's Disciple

4.5 Stars- Is he the only true B-Boy left on a major label ?

Review Score:

(8/10)
First of all, I'm not gonna sit here and dissect every single track on Street's Disciple, nor am I going to sit here and compare this record to every other record in Nas's discography. It just seems that in some cases (especially Nas's) that a classic status album can also be your Achilles heel, simply because everyone seems to use your classic record as your measuring stick, not necessarily applying the new music to today's times.

And with that said, we have "Street's Disciple" The 8th full length opus from Nas (if you want to include "Lost Tapes"). This album is what it is an album for the streets. The true Hip Hop Aficionado's, who can remember Hip Hop's early days, it's glory days of the Golden Era, to the dismal Ice Age era of today. Nas simply doesn't care what the masses think or what the current trends are in this case. He decided to make the music this time the way that he wanted to create it...for himself. This album is also great due to what it will do as a motivitational spark for up and coming emcee's (who don't have access to the underground) seeking inspiration.

Nas is by far one of hip hop's most brilliant/genius MC's to ever grace a mic. On track's such as "Sekou Story" and "Live Now" Nas's brilliance comes to life and will fool about 50% of its listeners. The fore mentioned tracks feature an AIDS stricken female artist by the name of Scarlet. But in actuality Scarlet is Nasty Nas in disguise due to some technical voice engineering. I can't even think of any other artist to ever successfully switch genders the way that Nas did. Sure Biggie altered his voice on "Gimmie the Loot" but come on, we all knew it was him. The only close second to this is when Del fooled his audience on a song called "Worldwide" where he morphed his voice to sound like a pre-teened youngster. Nonetheless there are so many positive points on Street's Disciple verses the low points. So I'll just give you the low points in my opinion on this album.
The track "reason" was missing some flare to the beat, If some will notice the beat for "Reason" is a muffled up De La Soul "Much More". De La's version comes across so much better overall. I still believe that Ludicris should have been left off of the "Virgo" track as well. In my opinion Luda just looks out of place on a track with Nas and Doug E. Fresh. "Serious" a banger that features AZ was cut at the last minute from the project. His tribute to his daughter is entertaining, but I seriously doubt that I'll return to listen to it again. There's a few other flaws production-wise in terms of bland beats, but not much at all.

Nas's lyricism is the true fuel that projects this album to the outer limits. This album offers the audience a broad range of ideas and subject matter. He even takes shots at the current trend of psuedo conscious rappers today on "American Way". This is definitely worth your hard earned money. Street's Disciple is arguably this year's best album thus far. Go get it and get inspired. Make way for the grown-folk rappers.

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