New Pusha T - Daytona

[TSA]

as I hit send I realized why. His beats get in the way of the song. Most songs with replay value have a stripped down beat and it's a 'part' of the song, but his beats -even when they're good- are always a spectacle that gets in the way of the actual song. Dr. Dre was the best at having an extremely high level of direction of polish on his beats but having the lyrics concept and artist be equal parts.

Then there's Kanye rapping. It's really hard for me to listen to because it sounds very fucking lame. Like someone who's testosterone levels were crippled by years of masturbation talent shows and church letting you 'have it'.

[ShaDynasty]

I don't want to constantly defend Kanye (although clearly I have nothing better to do) but for me personally the constant left turns and spectacles make his catalog much more replayable than Dre.

Where I do agree is that some of Kanyes music hasn't aged well. On Graduation and 808s specifically he was ahead of the curve but that also meant that many artists took that style and developed it quickly beyond its formative stages. Most of his catalog holds up. I come back to the first 2 albums, MBDTF and Yeezus most, and occasionally the others which always have flashes of brilliance.

[Apocalypse]

I think back in the day Steve Stoute and Poke & Tone made him rewrite 'If I Ruled The World' several times...

whats the story behind that?

[TSA]

scp

[ShaDynasty]

whats the story behind that?

www.complex.com/music/2016/07/nas-the-making-of-it-was-written

Nas needs some direction and time I think. On Nasir he just got beats and Kanye assumed Nas could put it together in whatever short frame of time it was.

But even with more A&Rs involved he hasn't made a dope album since 96. Theres just a handful of amazing tracks on each album and then a lot of crap. He finished a completely different album in the last few years before Nasir. I don't know if hes scrapped that project, but I doubt its very good.

[noel411]

Women who fuck on film.

[Durag]

I posted months ago that the biggest risk Nas can run is trying to sound informed, in this era, on his 'next album' which is this one. He's a middle school drop out in the end of the day. He's not going to be able to produce, academically, anything that surpasses the average 17 year olds twitter timeline. Or he'll just say - like this album points out - shit that literally isn't true. Songs like 'I know I can' are cool for kids, but Nas has to just rap about what he knows not what he thinks society expects him to know. Even his encounters with women on the album borderline retarded to my 30-year-old ears. He's too old and underexposed for 2018 hotempry. Even Rza now sounds like a complete fucking idiot.

I think Black Thought is the only rapper that I trust intellectually to deliver something that isn't cringy when he's trying to 'sound smart'. Everyone else, especially Nas, has to just stick to what they know even if it's growing up as a kid in fucking Queensbridge (which subject-wise, is the source of his best material).

I think Kanye's production overall lacks replay value. He's good at making things that are great momentarily for some reason. I don't get it. I don't know too many Kanye fans that even listen to his old music, though they rate it highly. Some of his roc-a-fella days production has a lot of replay value but from his debut on, if I ever like a song produced by him it's only for a few months.

100% agree with the Nas statement. In the age of information, trying to drop 'knowledge' that is apparently suppressed can easily be countered by a simple Google search so he makes himself life fuckin stupid. Nasir was pretty awful, Nas sucked, beats were average at best and Nas really doesnt sound good over them, even if the lyrics were killer.

I like Kanye's production, and especially after that bomb of a release with Pusha T and those first 4 insane beats I was expecting a LOT fuckin more. Lame.

www.complex.com/music/2016/07/nas-the-making-of-it-was-written

Nas needs some direction and time I think. On Nasir he just got beats and Kanye assumed Nas could put it together in whatever short frame of time it was.

But even with more A&Rs involved he hasn't made a dope album since 96. Theres just a handful of amazing tracks on each album and then a lot of crap. He finished a completely different album in the last few years before Nasir. I don't know if hes scrapped that project, but I doubt its very good.

I honestly think Life Is Good is pretty fuckin amazing apart from maybe two tracks, definitely one but the rest is pretty flawless. God's Son was great as well. Maybe Nas needs some drama in his life to make a good album now

[ShaDynasty]

Gods Son was more consistent but still had plenty of shite like 'Warrior', 'The Cross', 'Hey Nas' 'Thug Mansion' etc. Corny shit. Life Is Good had a few great tracks like 'The Don' but was forgettable and the way he tried to play it off like Kelis didn't dump him was sickening.

Speaking of which, theres some drama. Kelis called him an alcoholic and wife beater and he didn't address it at all.

[TSA]

Thugs Mansion was bad? I don't agree. You also left out Stillmatic

[ShaDynasty]

^ Being an atheist from the suburbs, I was probably destined to think 'Thugz Mansion' was a goofy fucking song. Why is everything about Hennessy and trying to make you feel sorry for thugs with 2Pac? Its like all the corniest cliches of 2Pacs music plus Nas talking about angel wings or some nonsense.

Stillmatic had amazing highlights. I remember theres at least a few atrocious beats and song concepts on there like basically just redoing 'If I Ruled The World' etc.

[David Daniel Davis]

Stillmatic is perfect aside from that Braveheart Party garbage and Smokin.

[TSA]

^I agree there. Smokin and braveheart party were gay. I had a friend who's favorite song was smokin LOL. We were like 12 though or something so in adulthood I give him a pass

[noel411]

I never gave any album after his first 2 more than a few spins. They had zero replay value to me. I never became properly familiar with any of them. As a whole I think most the ones I've heard were decent, but just didn't make me wanna return to them at all.