Review Summary: Nas comes back from the artistic grave with an inconsitent yet triumpahnt album that returns him the the forefront of Hip Hop.
You know, Jay-Z had a point when he commented that Nas’s discography was “a one hot album every ten year average”. True, Jay-Z’s annual albums aren’t all hits either, but the irony (or hypocrisy, if you’d like to call it that) isn’t so evident when the quote is from The Blueprint, one of Jay-Z’s best albums. However, Nas didn’t give too much time for Jay’s comment sink into our minds; he released a strong album of his own a couple of months after. The album is Stillmatic, Nas’s attempt to convince hip-hop heads that he still has the skills he exhibited on his classic debut Illmatic. He may have the Illmatic album cover art printed on his CD, but that don’t make it as good as Illmatic. Nas brings back the street poetry that launched his career and abandons the insubstantial commercial rap junk that led to his decline in credibility. That in of itself already makes this album a pleasant change for the better.
The intro to this album is excellent and its great beat trumpets Nas’s return to form. We eagerly await for more from the rapper with the “blood of a slave, heart of a king”. After that, Nas wastes no time in taking care of business. The famous diss track “Ether” -- Nas’s last word on the beef between him and Jay - comes on and Nas rips apart Jay-Z, who dissed him on a verse on “Takeover”. Nas is not able to pack his firepower as densely as Jay-Z did on “Takeover”, but his vicious insults probably made Jay-Z wish he could disappear when the album dropped. Nas insults Jay-Z’s looks (by making fun of his clothes, lips, and mustache), his record label, his Blueprint album, even his workout routine (“you Tae-bo hoe”). While Nas does a good job on this track, he does resort to using homophobic insults in the same way he did on a previous Jay-Z diss track called “H.O.M.O”.
The next track “Got Ur Self A…” was one of the singles off the album and it’s not hard to see why. Featuring a tinkling harpsichord that bounces along with a simple drum loop, “Got Ur Self A…” manages to be catchy without sacrificing quality. This brag track was stuck in my head for a while when it was on the airwaves. Check the beginning of this verse: It’s the return of the prince, the boss / This is real hardcore; Kid Rock and Limp Bizkit’s soft / Sip Cris’, get chips, wrist gliss, I floss / Stick shift, look sick up in that Boxster Porsche / With the top cut off. Rich kids go and cop The Source / They don’t know about the blocks I’m on The radio-edited version omitted the word “gun” from the chorus; I guess it’s considered an incendiary word. Funny how now they let the words “ho”, “ass”, and sometimes “bitch” go by unedited nowadays when here it looks like the radio stations don’t want to play anything that might be thought of as inappropriate.
The album gets even better with “Rewind” and “One Mic”, two brilliant models of innovative, top-notch lyricism. Nas preps the listener for upcoming dopeness by telling us directly that “I spit a story backwards; it starts at the ending.” Ears perk up. Indeed he does; Nas weaves (unweaves?) a tale of sex and murder, which would’ve probably still been good if he had left it like that, but instead takes it to another level by presenting it in reverse order. Creative as it is, I can’t give Nas all the credit. I have a feeling that he drew his inspiration from Memento, the cult classic movie (came out months before Stillmatic) with most of its plot revealed in reverse chronological order. But Nas puts his own twist to the song. Not only did he tell the story backwards, he portrays the actions as if they were being rewound by a VCR. So, bullets zip back into guns, people say things backwards, blunts grow instead of diminishing, and blowjobs involve spitting rather than sucking. The first time I heard it, it blew my mind. The event ends up not taking place at all because Nas calls off the hit. The song would have been even better if Nas went on for another minute or so; as it stands, it feels too short and a little rushed. “One Mic”, the big single off the album, could very well be one of Nas’s best songs. Nas produces a somber and layered instrumental that makes people stop and listen to the words. His subject matter, descriptive lyrics, and precise delivery show Nas at his finest.
One knee I ducked, could it be my time is up
But my luck, I got up, the cop shot again
Bus stop glass bursts, a fiend drops his Heineken
Richochetin between the spots that I'm hidin in
Only few rappers have the ability to conjure up images of street life like Nas. Another example: Nothin’ is fair, n!ggas roll up shootin’ from wheelchairs / My heart is racing, tasting revenge in the air. In addition, for the first two verses, he masterfully increases the volume of his voice gradually to reflect the growing intensity of his lyrics. On the last verse, he starts out loud and gets quieter as his lyrics become more reflective.
The rest of the songs do not quite approach the level of “One Mic” and some of them don’t even come remotely close. Some songs have unimpressive beats and some show Nas getting a little lazy with the pen and pad. Specifically, I’m not feeling tracks like “Smokin’” and “The Flyest”. “Braveheart Party” is not included in my version of Stillmatic for some strange reason (I think mine is a later version), but from what I’ve heard about the song, I don’t think I need to complain. “Rule” comes off as gimmicky since the Track Masters do a weak remake of Tears For Fear’s “Everybody Wants to Rule the World”. It sounds cool the first time, but after that, it seems like just a mediocre track. His flow sounds corny and the entire song seems forced. After years of being criticized for being to commercial it seems Nas has gone to the other extreme and at times just seems dated.
In the end Nas has made an album that showcases the brilliance that made him a legend in the first place, but is to average in places for it to be anything more than a pretty good album.
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