5+ Spins and Nothing Has Stuck Nas is one of the greatest. I have a number of his projects, even those most don't love like 'I Am...' and 'Street's Disciple', in my top 50 rap albums of all time, and I've been called a Stan because of it, but I can't say this reaches anywhere near those heights. Nas raps as well as he ever has. He still knows how to flow from word to word and write to allow that to happen. There is some signature style Nas rhyming, particularly on songs like 'Blue Benz', that is a delight to listen to. The rapping performance has almost never been the issue with Nas though. Aside from Nas on the vocals, there are some questionable features though like Lil Durk, and from my perspective, Big Sean's lazy sounding delivery hurts 'Replace Me'. Anderson doesn't knock 'All Bad' out the paak either. Topically it has issues. I don't find a lot of this interesting. It's a mixture of his come up, a bit of brag rap, racism, African-American empowerment/celebration among other topics. Some bars on 'Til The War Is Won' caught my attention, but after a number of spins, I don't find the content very engaging, which is particularly important if I don't love the beats which I'll talk about next. Onto the production that is handled predominantly by Hit-Boy. There are some nice moments and touches such as the beat switch on 'Blue Benz', but the production doesn't wow me. It is different than what Nas has often rapped over but it sounds dirty in parts. At times the production doesn't vary much from the generic trap sound we have heard so frequently for about a decade now. I know it's a compilation, but 'The Lost Tapes 2' has a number of songs with more likeable beats than anything on this. I listened to the aforementioned album after this and I realised that I was bumping my head straightaway to most of the songs and that basically didn't happen at all with King's Disease. "We going ultra black, it supposed to slap" - It doesn't... The trend, maybe due to streaming, of short songs in general, doesn't do this album any favours either. '27 Summers' is one of my favourite moments but its short length hurts it. The 16 bars x 3 verses as a song structure works. It's a tried and true formula. I can find it hard to get into short tracks. There aren't many if any hooks to stay in your head here either. There is quality control. Only 13 songs with a running time of 38 minutes make this an easy listen, and maybe it's a touch better than his last effort, Nasir, but as I said with Nasir, there is no amazing song here. I get busy with the playlists on Spotify and it never occurred to me to add anything from this to my 'Best of Nas' list. He hasn't made a song to add to his best of playlist since 2012. I said this after Nasir, but I hope that he still has his 'Nas Album Done' album ready to release. I'm glad this was fairly well-received but I'm disappointed with it. I can't give it more than a 6/10/ Beats: ★★☆ Rapping: ★★★★ Bars: ★★★ Hooks: ★★☆

"They thought I'd make another Illmatic But it's always forward I'm movin' Never backwards stupid here's another classic?" I waited to purchase this despite the early leak of the album so therefore I had plenty of time to read many reviews. From many of them one would have thought the beats were something a 5 year old would construct… Anyway, while most won't blow you away like the way Dre's Chronic blew people away back in '92, for the most part, I like them and I think they compliment Nas well and what he is trying to do with this. 'You Can't Stop Us Now', 'Hero', 'America', 'N.I.G.G.E.R.' (The Slave and the Master) & 'Black President' are all extremely excellent tracks from a production and lyrical point of view with 'Sly Fox' and 'Y'all My Niggas' not being far off. The subject matter of racism has obviously been done before (without the current Obama stuff and so on) but Nas still spits some worthwhile material and I struggle to think of an album subject wise that has been overly original in a while. Even without my bias of being a big Nas fan (if you can't tell from my username) this is easily one of the best hip hop albums so far in 2008. While not a classic, as there are a few skippable tunes, I have listened to it about five times already and my enjoyment has increased with each spin. The best on this are some of his best songs. I put that on my mother. Best Tracks: N.I.G.G.E.R. (The Slave and the Master), America, Hero, Black President, You Can't Stop Us Now

This is almost everyone's least favourite Nas album, as up to NASIR it deserved to be. However, I don't think it's as bad as most claim it to be. It's also not as poppy as some will have you believe, as really only two of the tracks ('Nastradamus' and 'You Owe Me') are a lot more commercial sounding than his other work. If this was Nas' first album or by some no-name rapper, I can't see it having the low rating it does. It's worth noting that as I Am... was originally going to be a double-disc album, but was one of the first major releases to be leaked on the net, that if things went as planned this album may never have happened. Anyway, one of the biggest problems here are some of the hooks which are not implemented well and make some tracks more boring - see 'Some of Us Have Angels' for an example of that. It's nowhere near his previous three albums or what he created in the future, but I still like about half of it. 'God Love Us', - which is one hook that I do love - 'Life We Chose' and 'Come Get Me' are three high-quality tracks worth hearing if nothing else. 3.5-3/5 Best Tracks: God Love Us, Life We Chose, Come Get Me

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