Nas - Hip-Hop is Dead

[JerseyIronman]

ILLMATIC has WHACK BEATS?
im sorry I just cant get over this
NY State of Mind, Lifes A Bitch, World Is yours, It Aint hard to Tell, Represent, Halftime
These are some of favorite beats of ALL TIME i just cant comprehend this im sorry.

your opinion is completely yours tho

[Sgt Holly Wood]

i was about to quote him for saying that

illmatic has the best production outta all of nas albums

da fuck is u talking about terrible production

[Come Honor Face]

It's strange. I just can't get into the beats on this album. All of my homies that normally have virtually identical taste in hip hop as I do tell me i'm crazy for this. U guys obviously agree with them. I don't know what to say. I didnt like the beats when it came out, and I don't like them now. Believe me, I have given it many, many listens tryin to hear what you hear, but I just don't.

[Come Honor Face]

I thought NY State Of Mind pt.2 on the I Am album has much better beat than the original from Illmatic.

[Twiztid-Wutang]

Hip Hop is Dead (How true this is)

1) Money over Bullshit: A return to form for Nas, Going on about how the shit is getting in the way of the true purpose, Money. 8/10

2) You cant kill me: I dont see what this story was telling, But it doesnt leave you pissed at lack of idealism. The best is decent. 7/10

3) Carry on Tradition: From the financially screwed up Scott storch. This talks so much about why Hip Hop is dead, And he speaks firm about knowing your roots ''Lets see who can quote a daddy kane line the fastest'' 8/10

4) Where are they now: A classic sounding beat, a break beat, Where have THOSE gone nowadays. Again he talks about how bad rap is right now. He kept the theme up 8/10

5) Hip Hop is Dead: The title track, He used the Iron butterfly beat before on Thieves theme, but its worked better on this track. Will.i.am is a good producer who gets shitted on since hes on BEP. Lyrically this was one of Nas best from that period. 9/10

6) Who killed it?: The way he changed his voice for this song was amazing, A story told from the view of an old school cat 9/10

7) Black Republican: Okay, I know it features Jay, but it sounds...Just as you would expect. L.e.s makes another great Nas beat, Nas comes better than Nas on this joint, Though Jay did go in kinda hard 8/10

8) Not going Back: Featuring his now ex-wife. I love this collab, One of the best from the album, and from Nas in a while at that time. The best is sexy and hard at the same time. Kelis' hook is great as well. 9/10

9) Still dreaming: Listening to this, It reminds me of how great Kanye was, He was different than mostly anyone. And he told a decent story in the fact he was on the track with Nas. and The best is classic Kanye. 10/10

10) Hold down the block: This track is decent it has a 90's feel to it, but for some reason it never spoke to me 7/10

11) Blunt Ashes: This is the best track of the album, The beat is dark and brooding. Talking of the negatives of the past in music's history 10/10

12) Let there be light: A beat that would sound amazing with Quest love playing the drums live. The hook works on every level as well 8/10

13) Play on Playa: Snoop and Nas, a odd mix, but it works in a weird ass way. 7/10

14) Cant forget about you: A stomping beat that has some un-needed samples, not the albums strongest songs on the album 6/10

15) Hustlers: The first collab with Dre and Nas in a while. Game, though not the best, works on Dre beats as well, and does great next to nas. 8/10

16) Hope: A accapella song, THIS is amazing and shows that Hip hop will NOT die, not as long as cats like Nas still go in like this 10/10 (''If your asking why Hip hop died,Its a good chance your the reason why'')

Overall: 132/160

[GhettoGnom]

IWW - 116/140
HHID - 132/160

...

This album wasn't anything special tbf.

Hip Hop is Dead (How true this is)

You can rot in hell, Hip-hop’s alive and well
At least that’s the word I’ve heard from over thousands of my clientele
-substantial
(no offence intended)

[Twiztid-Wutang]

IWW - 116/140
HHID - 132/160

...

This album wasn't anything special tbf.






You can rot in hell, Hip-hop’s alive and well
At least that’s the word I’ve heard from over thousands of my clientele
-substantial
(no offence intended)

Im not saying the HHID is better than IWW, IWW had two less songs so the numbers dont equal to my actual opinion. The messge itself murders everything on Hip hop is dead in my true opinion

[GhettoGnom]

116/140 = 0,829
132/160 = 0,825

Seems pretty equal to me (i.e., adjust your rating system, it's not working )

[lynskey]

I like this album, put it in the same bracket as 'Untitled' and 'God's Son'. 8/10

Top 5;
Let There Be Light
Still Dreaming
Black Republican
Money Over Bullshit
Blunt Ashes

[claaa7]

ah come on man, there's a review index section in here that features all the Nas albums, just post in there.. i'll merge or delete these threads tomorrow.

[Twiztid-Wutang]

ah come on man, there's a review index section in here that features all the Nas albums, just post in there.. i'll merge or delete these threads tomorrow.

How about you just merge them. I dont want to waste my time, just to get them deleted. Besides Sticky them up at the top if theres a problem with the fact that I wrote more reviews. The kinda what mods are for.

[angry!]

some niggas didnt see the double meaning nas delivered with the title track!!!!!

"hip hop is dead", everything been done before, fuck it might as well flip the same sample one more time!!!!! that joint is crazy, i dont agree with nas perspective but that track is crazy!!!!

HHID was a solid album, well written concepts and dense lyrically!!!! im still catching shit off this joint!!!!! "black republicans" was a monumental collab, dre blessed nas with a banger, kanye gave nas two crazy tracks, a whole lot to like from this record!!!!!

id give it 4 mics, i didnt love it like i loved gods son but im still bumpin it!!!!!

[claaa7]

How about you just merge them. I dont want to waste my time, just to get them deleted. Besides Sticky them up at the top if theres a problem with the fact that I wrote more reviews. The kinda what mods are for.

yeah i'll merge them, and the review index and forum rules are already stickied on top.

[KJR]

I liked this album quite a bit. Here's a review I posted on RYM:

I guess if anyone could make such a brash and risky proclamation as "Hip hop is dead", it would be Nasir Jones, the same man who released the game-changing debut, Illmatic, in 1994.

On this release, Nas sounds genuinely angry and distraught over the way a genre so dear to him is being misused and disrespected. On Where Are They Now?, he name drops a lot of purveyors of the genre and simply poses the question, "What has happened to them?" Hip-hop is weird in that it doesn't put it's legends on a pedestal like rock n' roll or heavy metal or even soul music. If you ask a lot of rap fans today about Big Daddy Kane or Boogie Down Productions, they would probably not even know who you're talking about. Compare that to asking a young rock fan today about Led Zeppelin or Black Sabbath. The difference in perception is glaringly obvious but the question still remains as to why the difference exists. Nas explores this fact deeply on Carry On Tradition. He also dissects the disrespect newer rappers knowingly have for older more established rappers.

Nas just doesn't rap about hip-hops' ills though, he can still tell stories too such as on You Can't Kill Me where he introduces themes of betrayal and jealousy. Although the story isn't directly about hip-hop, the parallels between the story and the rap game are glaringly obvious and their relevance today goes without saying.

Hip-Hop Is Dead (the title track) is decrying the state of the game and the negative progressions the art form has taken over the years. The beat is run over a sample of Iron Butterfly's most famous tune which is weird because Nas already used the sample on his previous album. (guess he really likes it?) Anyway, the rapping is great and the imagery is solid as Nas "reminisces when it wasn't all business". This track helps segue into Who Killed It? which is pretty weird by Nas standards. Nas plays a detective and he raps with a '40s gangster accent (ya see?!) as he tries to track down a woman (hip-hop) and question her as to what went wrong and figure out what her story is. It's a great metaphorical allegory for hip-hop's rise and perceived fall.

With Black Republican, we get the first collaboration between Nas and Jay and the shit bangs! Jay's whole verse is dedicated to his relationship with Nas and how the beef started. He felt if he did not beef with Nas, he would be forever in debt to him (b/c he used his voice on a few songs) and that's never good. Nas's verse is directed at how negative prospects and emotions develop and how he is willing to struggle through them with confidence. It also samples a song from The Godfather pt. 2.

Still Dreaming is an overlooked Nas classic in my opinion. Kanye tells a story of a woman who dreams of her husband cheating and Nas tells two different stories of despair. Great wordplay and storytelling and Nas and Ye vibe very well with each other. The refrain is dreamy...no pun intended.

Like "Purple" before it, Blunt Ashes is a wonderful smoked out song of paranoia and esoteric thoughts. The beat is beautiful and the quality of the song itself is hard to explain, but it really is a wonderful piece of work. Probably one of my favorite Nas songs period. His voice and raps are just so convincing as he reflects on the corrupt and evil undoings of other people's lives and careers. Nas continues being thoughtful with the introspective Let There Be Light, which is a highly memorable song due to its chorus. Nas's collaborations with Snoop and Game/Dre feel sort of impromptu but they work for the most part. Hustlers feels completely out of place though, like it should be a bonus track. It just doesn't fit after Can't Forget About You. It's not a bad song, it just doesn't really fit.

Overall, this is a return to form for Nas after his double-album. Someone needed to make a controversial statement and album like this one. People needed to wake up a little bit. Nas goes in on these songs. Sure, not all of the beats are incredible but they're all sufficient even at their worst. Nas' raps are great as usual. He is diverse on this record. He is often reflective of his career and of hip-hop itself. Sometimes he gets philosophical or even conceptual. He raps about loyalty, death, lust and his work with other MCs on here all comes out well. This is another strong entry in Nas relatively strong discography.

Best Tracks: Who Killed It?, Black Republican, Still Dreaming, Blunt Ashes

7.9/10

[CharlesJones]

I didn't even bother to listen to this album. I gave up on him after Illmatic even though i heard It Was Written, Iam, Nastradamus, Stillmatic, God's Son, Untitled albums. It's funny to me what he said on Ether when he said Jay-Z wants to be on every last one of his classics when Illmatic is the only classic he's done hahahahahahahahahahahaha. He's in my top 5 best rappers of all time though because of his lyrics. There aren't too many rappers better than him. He's right though that hip hop is dead and it's funny that Young Jeezy and a few other southern rappers got upset because of what he said LOL. He didn't even mention any rappers names as who's the cause of the reason he thinks rap is dead. I do blame the south for rap being terrible because their terrible lyrics made rap dead. 90's New York, New Jersey, Los Angeles, Oakland rappers are still lyrical and trying to keep rap alive but unfortunately a lot of them aren't doing good music.