Nas has always been amid the controversy, Stillmatic, released in 2002 amid a flurry of controversy, was a triumph, redeeming Nas’s waning street credibility. Than came his more mature album, God’s Son, that went a step further than the lyrical infighting and antiwar propaganda of Stillmatic, boldly exploring themes of nostalgia, redemption, vengeance, and responsibility. And now ‘Hip Hop Is Dead.’ That’s the title of the impressive new album by the rapper Nas. It is meant to inspire a reaction, and so far it has.
It looks like, Nas with grim determination, sets out to give the currently grouchy genre of hip hop a swift kick in the ass to let them know that you are a bygone era. Nas’s new album has come up as a personal insult to some.
‘I don’t think hip-hop is dead at all,’
Young Jeezy said,
‘It’s just a new day and time, it’s a new story, it’s a new movement.’
While saying so he sounded not just irritated but wounded too, asking,
“I’m-a respect his craft, he ain’t gon’ respect mine?’
New York’s long-dominant hip-hop scene has been slumping while Southern hip-hop has been surging, and Southern rappers are often blamed for hip-hop’s alleged decline. But Nas has conspicuously declined to assign blame. At least Nas and Young Jeezy agree on one thing: Hip-hop has changed.
Surely the Hip Hop has changed, but how? Nas is a formalist, obsessed with the way rappers put words together. And his album is full of insinuations that today’s rappers care more about money than craft. (In the title track he raps, ‘Everybody sound the same/Commercialized the game/Reminiscin’ when it wasn’t all business.’) He definitely gets points for actually being a somewhat unique take on hip hop history.
Via: NYTIMES
