Passion Project/ Nas 2021
SHOW DISCIPLINE
If there was a class on how to rap I would assume study material would have to include some albums from Nas. He’s already released plenty of projects that the hiphop community already deem timeless including Illmatic, It Was Written, and Life is Good.
In the past year, Nas released Kings Disease 2. The album, just like the first one was entirely produced by Hit-Boy. Nas sounds like he’s 21 on tracks. The project was a great follow-up to King Diseases one. I would say that pressure was high to follow up the first album. Although the album won a grammy for rap album of the year, I don’t really know what to expect from Nas at this point.
I was probably still playing KD2 when I heard Nas released another album. It felt like a last-minute buzzer-beater. At the end of the year, Esco came through with Magic. Another project was produced entirely by Hit Boy but this one felt different. Magic is nothing but amazing raps from Nas in an amazing way. The production was a completely different style than the Kings Disease series.
Some of the songs on magic are the best Nas songs I’ve heard in a few years and that’s saying a lot. From the beginning, Speechless starts you could tell Nas is going to a different place. Ugly and Wu For The Children are great songs. I love the reference Nas makes to Hiphop culture throughout the album. He mentions late artists like Big L and Ol’ Dirty Bastard. The song Wave Gods pay homage to Gangstarr and Max B. The song also features A.S.A.P. Rocky.
The albums Nas put out this year are amazing not to mention He put out two albums in one year. In the past two years, he’s put out three. There used to be a time when fans of Nas had to two maybe three years between albums. It’s quite a surprise to see him put out these great albums.