An Underappreciated Album Stillmatic got 5 mics, and tends to get more critical acclaim than this album, but these beats are more my thing, and give or take a track, I enjoy all of this a lot, and feel this album is often overlooked from Nas' discography. It kicks off as good as any Nas album does with a run of four brilliant songs. The production with the James Brown sample on the opener is brilliant. 'The Cross', 'Made You Look', 'Last Real Nigga Alive' are a nice mixture of brag rap and storytelling with Nas telling us about his time in and around hip hop, his relationship and beef with Biggie-"Y'all know about my Biggie wars/Who you thought Kick In The Door was for?"-, among other things. I've always also enjoyed 'Mastermind' with its nice rhymes and beat, and 'Dance' also which is a great dedication track to his mother. And then finally, 'Heaven', which has always to me felt like a bit of an imitation of 'If I Ruled the World (Imagine That)', but nevertheless works well. To most of the rest: Hey Nas', 'I Can' and 'Revolutionary Warfare' are solid tunes but to me have the kind of beats which makes Stillmatic also not get higher marks. That softer kind of poppy sound, something about it I can't love. Finally, to the average tunes, and like most Nas/Braveheart tracks, 'Zone Out' doesn't work, and while it gets praise from others, I've never enjoyed 'Thugz Mansion' much at all, and easily prefer 9th Wonder's version on ‘God's Stepson’. Nevertheless, half this album features near, if not, 5/5 songs with most not being too far behind. 'They Shootin'! Beats: ★★★★ Rapping/Bars: ★★★★★ Hooks: ★★★★ Best Tracks: Get Down, The Cross, Made You Look, Last Real Nigga Alive, Mastermind, Dance, Heaven

In terms of critiquing them, the issue with EPs, or these seven track albums that Kanye is involved with, is that almost all of the songs need to hit home to deserve a high rating. As I feel listeners should be lenient with double disc albums if a few songs don't work, the opposite applies with short projects. While most of the beats aren't unlikable, they really don't move me. I don't always agree with him regarding hip hop, but Michael Rapport said it well - “It ain't smacking, it ain't funky, it ain't bangin’”. I'm a massive Nas fan, it shouldn't be hard to tell if you read my username and know a bit about the guy, but after a few spins, I'm not enthused by this. 1 Not for Radio - A decent opener. Nothing more. Diddy isn't needed here at all. His shouting on 'Hate Me Now' worked, it doesn't here. 2 Cops Shot the Kid - I don't think some of the beats suit Nas that well and this is one of them and looping a one second sample 200 times isn't genius. The subject matter has been done to death in hip hop, particularly of late. That damn Slick Rick sample will get stuck in your head though. I hope Slick Rick is eating well off all of these samples. He must be the most sampled rapper. 3 White Label - At first I was thinking that it's an ill-fitting beat, but now I just think that it isn't a good one. The vocals on the sample conflict and overpower Nas' vocals. I also expect more than brag rap from Nas that too many bars on this album are. 4 Bonjour - I don't think I've heard 'polenta' in a song before. Lyrically there is nothing thought-provoking, but Nas feels most at home on this beat, making it my favourite track from this album. It reminds me of the lush songs on ‘Life Is Good’. 5 everything - Nas raps well, but it feels like a Kanye song, which he does his best to ruin by trying to sing, which is embarrassing. Kanye, The-Dream is right there. 6 Adam and Eve / 7 Simple Things- The beats for the last couple of songs are good, with Adam and Eve being stronger, and Nas rapping supremely. I think it's really easy to say an older rapper has lost rapping talent because of the date on their birth certificate when they haven't lost much at all. I can't give this anymore than a 3, making it my lowest rating for a Nas album. It's just decent and his weakest project. The best handful on ‘Nastradamus’ are better than these songs. The weakest may be weaker, much weaker to some, although in my opinion Kanye trying to sing on 'everything' is worse than the maligned 'Big Girl' hook. I'm hoping this isn't the 'Nas Album Done' album. Like I said, nothing moves me, no real catchy hook, no brilliant 16, no truly innovative and creative song that Nas has done many times before, nothing truly grabs me. There's definitely nothing here to add to a top 10 Nas playlist, and probably not even a top 30-40. Clowns will say and have been saying that you can't blame this on Kanye at all, and who knows what the process actually was, but if you can't blame a producer for not producing music that best suits the artist, then I'm all out of ideas. 3-2.5 Best Tracks: Bonjour, Adam and Eve

All I Need Is One Mic! Out of all of Nas' albums, what to rate this has taken the most thought. While there are some great tracks present, enough of the production on enough tracks makes me second guess myself. I have often felt that this is a bit overrated based on his other albums, but as I go through the songs there isn't much not to like. It starts off brilliantly with Nas performing triumphantly on 'The Intro' which follows on throughout the album, and while 'Ether' is immature at times, and lyrically Nas clutches at straws, just as Jay did on Takeover, Nas' rapping on it means you have to enjoy it. Track three is one of my favourite Nas tunes, ‘Got Ur Self A…’ with the 'Alabama 3' sample working to perfection. 'One Mic' is another must mention with it being completely different to anything Nas has done and a very original hip hop song altogether as is 'Rewind' where Nas tells a story back to front. These are two reasons in itself that make Nas stand out as a hip hop artist and better than Jay-Z. 'What Goes Around' is also a favourite from the disc, for its lyrics particularly, and is one of his more underrated tunes. Apart from the terrible mess that is 'Braveheart Party', which wins the worst song on a Nas album award in a canter--that was removed from later pressings of the album at Mary J. Blige's request--everything else is good. The '2nd Childhood' beat is a tad monotonous, and as mentioned in my God's Son review, the production of tunes on 'Flyest' and 'Rule' leave a bit to be desired, but all in all it is another essential rap release thanks to its strengths which are some highly creative moments and lyrics. Beats: ★★★★ Rapping/Bars: ★★★★★ Hooks: ★★★★ Best Tracks: Stillmatic (The Intro), Got Ur Self A..., Smokin', Rewind, One Mic, What Goes Around

This is not what I expected. If you've heard Chyna Whyte on songs like 'Wild Muthafuckas' from Naughty By Nature's 'Icons' album, then you'd be expecting some hard hitting explicit gangsta and sex raps, but instead we have something more tame. While the beats seem like they were made for something harder, the lyrics largely have a Christian hip hop theme. Lyrically it gets a bit monotonous and the beats aren't amazing.

I seem to have said this often in reviews recently, but Paris is one of the artists that got me really interested in hip hop. I'd heard the brilliant 'Break the Grip of Shame' while playing psx, and once I was able to I knew I had to find more from this guy. Although this is ofted cited as his best, something else I say often, I'm not a huge fan of '80s hip hop beats so I like his later work more, but this is still a very good album, and I like the beats more than a lot of other hip hop from this era. I mean, how amazin' is the beginning of 'Wretched' when the beat blends into the American anthem. The production is in the vain of Public Enemy I guess, and much more raw, with plenty of scratches and less funky than his 'Guerrilla Funk' album for example, and much of his later work. And of course, lyrically Paris is all about improving his fellow brothers' life with racism being a strong focus. He doesn't have the flow of some, but his voice always works and is the perfect pitch for the type of stuff he spits. Highly recommended, from in my opinion one of the most consistent discographies in rap. Best Tracks: Scarface Groove, Break the Grip of Shame/Remix, Ebony, The Devil Made Me Do It/Remix, Mellow Madness, Wretched.