Well folks, I picked up a couple copies of Nas' new LP today. The bomb? Mind blowing? Illmatic Part 2? Well...no, no and definitely no. The track listing on the vinyl and CD goes like this: 1. Album Intro: kind of corny. It starts out with the sound of a slave being whipped in the background, and Nas saying stuff like "I'm sick of eating chitlins and shit all day...there's no place for a nigga around here." Nas in this case is playing the role of the slave, deciding to move on in both a physical and metaphysical sense. I dunno, for me it came off as, like I said, kind of corny, lacking the atmosphere of ghetto grittiness that "The Genesis" had to offer. The Genesis was one of the few intros in hip-hop history that was worth listening to just for the beat, and that was actually relevant to the rest of the album - besides providing a great setup for the masterpiece "N.Y. State of Mind". This intro is definitely fast-forward material, in my opinion. 2. The Message: a fat track, and a great way to start the album. It features an ill mandolin loop and scratching by Kid Capri (during the break he cuts up "I ain't the type of brother made for you to start testin"). This cut is kinda of low-key, melancholy and reflective, and its subject matter is typical Queensbridge street life (although it features some ill lines like "but a thug changes/and love changes/and best friends become strangers"). Definitely one of the tightest songs on the album. 3. Street Dreams: Yup, it uses the chorus from the Eurhythmics' "Sweet Dreams (are made of this)". The beat is funky and thick, but gets monotonous and Nas does his best Foxxy Brown imitation ("I want it all, armorall Benz/with endless papes"..."she got me back living sweeter, fresh caesar/guess, David Robinsons, Wally moccasins/bitches blow me while hopping in the drop-top BM"). Overall this song isn't that great...mediocre at best in my opinion. The chorus is pretty corny. 4. I Gave You Power - while preceded by an annoying little intro skit about a kid shooting somebody and then having to stash the gun, this provides one of the album's high points - no surprise since it's the only track produced by DJ Premier. The power referred to is that of a gun, and in an interesting twist Nas takes the weapon's point of view. The chorus chants: "How you like me now? I go *blow*/it's the shit that moves crowds/makin' every ghetto foul/I might've took your first child/scarred your life, crippled your style/I gave you power, I made you buckwild". The beat is classic Primo: slow, dark, relentless and eerie. It features a piano loop intertwined with some subdued violins. Surprisingly, there's no cutting of any phrase in the chorus. A good song, but still...not as good as most would expect from a pairing between perhaps the top lyricist and producer in the game. It pales in comparison to former collaborations like "N.Y. State of Mind", "Represent", and "Memory Lane". If this was a song in the middle of an album, somthing like Life's A Bitch on Illmatic, it would be really dope, but it's not really strong enough to be a centerpiece song. 5. Watch Dem Niggas - all you die-hard East Coast heads look out. I guarantee that when this track starts, you'll expect to hear The Twins or Warren G come in on it. Seriously, no offence to all you G-Funkers, but it has the *ack* synthesizers on it. The track isn't necessarily bad, and is mad laid back, but somehow I just expect more than this radio-friendly Lex-driving dodging-the-jakes Big Poppa kind of stuff. It's just not really inspired. Not fast-forward, but close. 6. Take It In Blood - a beat reminiscent of Mobb Deep production has Nas speaking about the Escobar shit yet again. No surprises here, and nothing to get excited over either. The drum track reminds me of Notorious BIG's Juicy, although that had a lot more feeling and thought to it. 7. The Set Up - produced by Havoc of Mobb Deep, it features the Infamous' trademark dark, echoey sound made popular in songs like Still Shinin' and Shook Ones Part II. Unfortunately the beat is once again monotonous and doesn't really hold your attention; it lacks the hypeness of either one of those songs. Nas raps about one of his friends getting shot and his crew going back and making the hit. Yawn. 8. Black Girl Lost - while this song is _very_ R&B tinged, it can be considered this album's "Life's A Bitch". This song holds weight in my opinion, speaking upon the way black women disrespect themselves by giving up the dugout for material things or just to screw men around. This song features the most insightful lyrics on the album, presenting that little slice of life so prevalent on Illmatic. "Like Isis, she got your heart broken, felt lifeless/grow up girl, you said you want revenge so now you acting nicest/to whoever's getting down and triflest/to get his mind all you do is give him something priceless". Fresh. Produced by L.E.S., so rest assured there's an R&B song somewhere that has been completely jacked. But still fresh. 9. Suspect - this song alerts witnesses of crimes to watch their backs. The beat is boring and monotonous, and the chorus sounds kind of wack. He kicks some fat lyics ("descendants made of early natives that were captured and taught to think backwards"). But more or less filler. 10. Shootouts - while produced by the Trakmasterz, this is perhaps the most blatant attempt to mimic a Rza beat I've ever heard. It sounds like a typical Rza beat, just one big loop with little Keyboard loop that sounds like it's from a Kung-Fu movie. It will remind you of a million Wu-Tang songs, and I for one could care less about what Nas said on this track since it's neither interesting or insightful. Subject matter is his crew throwing a block party, some niggas with guns coming to break it down, a shootout ensues and the police come and kill his opponents. Once again, yawn. 11. Nas Is Coming - produced by Dr. Dre. I'm sorry, but I just can't handle Nas rapping over what sounds like a recycled Dogg Pound beat with a WACK R&B chorus..."Nas Is Coming, Nas Is Coming"...how original. This song also reminds me heavily of "Peel Their Caps Back" by Ice-T, but without the atmosphere. I don't even think that Dre fans will like this one. It sure as hell isn't California Love. Fucking awful. 12. Affirmative Action - the intro to this song really gives it atmoshphere, with AZ saying "So this is it huh...this is what they want...people don't understand the four devils - lust...envy...hate... jealous...wicked niggas". Unfortunately, Cormega sounds just like Big Noyd and says the same thing that the Noydster does. And Foxxy Brown is as predictable as ever: "I keep a phat Marquis piece/laced in all the illest snakeskin/armani sweaters, carolina, herrara"...and then she goes on about bagging grams, selling and importing drugs, etcetera. Just another disappointing track. At least it has another interesting guitar/mandolin [?] loop though. Nothing special. 13. Live Nigga Rap - Featuring Mobb Deep, not a bad track but once again nothing special. That seems to be the theme for this album - sounds amazing on paper, but in practice it's just mediocre. Mobb Deep says the same damn thing they always say, but at least Nas comes with an inspired verse. The beat is nothing special, pretty nodescript uptempo Mobb Deep-ish beat. Blah. 14. If I Ruled the World - this track has been discussed to death, and anyone that's going to buy this album has already heard it so I won't touch it. Well, there you go. Overall, I think that this album is only worth the money to die-hard Nas fans that have liked all of his shit no matter what. If you thought his shit on AZ's album wasn't that good, then you might want to steer clear of this one. In fact, this reminds me of AZ's album a lot - decent lyrics but the production lacks severely on the whole. To illustrate, if you put "Rather Unique" on this album it'd be the best track by far just by virtue of the Pete Rock production. This album shows you what mediocre production can do to any artist, no matter _how_ dope his lyrics are. The cover art is the same as Illmatic, with Nas' grown-up face superimposed over the same picture. I thought that this was cheesy and unoriginal at best, ridiculous at worst. A disappointment. One redeeming quality is that all lyrics are included (although horribly transcribed). But to me that doesn't really matter, since I won't be reading them when this album is gathering dust in my crate and I'm bumping Stakes Is High. You know, I never thought I'd actually be recommending that people _not_ buy a Nas album. I guess the unthinkable has happened. peace Known Universe