Nas: Untitled

[jmood88]

Re: Nas: Untitled

Being that Jay-Z & 50 have no beef with each other, it'd be pretty pointless imo.

I didn't say that they did, I said I would like to see it.

[ProfessaPackMan]

Re: Nas: Untitled

Still would be pretty pointless to have though, especially since we already KNOW what's gonna happen and be said by either one of them anyway.

[ProfessaPackMan]

Re: Nas: Untitled

.

1. Nas Is Coming. As if 50 Cent doesn't have enough enemies to contend with - Young Buck, The Game, Fat Joe and Shaniqua Tompkins - Nas is throwing his hat in the ring as another adversary for the G-Unit general. Apparently Nas is finally ready to take aim at Fif after being on the receiving end of many insults over the past few years. On the track "Queens Get The Money" from his much anticipated album Untitled, Nas seemingly fires a dart at the fellow Queens native. Though he doesn't directly call out 50, it can be assumed from lyrics like this.

"*****s is still hatin/talkin that Nas done fell off with rhyming /he'd rather floss with diamonds/they pray please god let him spit that oozie in the army lining that shorty doo-wop rolling oowops in the park reclining take twenty-seven mc's put em /in a line and they out of alignment/my assignment said she said retirement hiding behind 8 Mile and The Chronic/get rich but dies rhyming/this is high science/now add 23 more from queens to b'more/i'm over they heads like a bulimic on a seesaw/now that's 50 porch monkeys ate up at the same time"

Uh oh. Could we be on the verge of "Ether 2?" 50 better be careful here. He has to take into account he's never been to war with anyone like Nas. While he's bumped heads (pause) with Ja Rule, Fat Joe, Jadakiss, The Game, and now Young Buck, Nas has been to battle with Notorious B.I.G and Jay-Z. There is no question Escobar would be his toughest lyrical competition to date.

[jmood88]

Re: Nas: Untitled

That exact same quote was posted just a few posts ago.

[ProfessaPackMan]

Re: Nas: Untitled

From whom?

[jmood88]

Re: Nas: Untitled

Ice Cream Truck

[ex carrabba fan]

Re: Nas: Untitled

What'd be the point?

Of the things 50 cares about, he far exceeds everyone else. He cares about 2 things, making money and being a gangster.

In terms of sales, he's been the most successful rapper since he's come out. In terms of actual copies moved (thus canceling out the doubling of the Outkast album), the 2 most successful albums since GRoDT came out have been...GRoDT and The Massacre. He's had more top 10 singles than any other rapper and he's only released about 3.5 albums worth of stuff.

In terms of "being a gangster", well, he's the only mainstream rapper with anywhere near the certified criminal past that Jay Z, NWA, and pretty much any gangster rappers talk about. All of them claim it, but 50 has proof that he did it. Granted, this is probably the most pointless thing in rap, but for some reason it apparently matters.

An Ether 2 track would just be a strawman. 50 claims that Jay Z and Nas are better than him on earlier songs, plus, while he wasn't as good as either of those two, he was a much better rapper before his shooting. From their lyrics, Nas and Jay would much rather be 50 than 50 would ever want to be them.

On an unrelated note, this album has grown on me a lot since yesterday, those I do have a few songs turned off. With those off, I'm almost willing to call this album a classic.

Anyone know why Nas would go at Fif? And yeah I guess you're right, Fif hasn't really claimed he's the best lyricist or anything.

On first listen, I already felt I had just experienced a classic. The flow/content is simply superior to any mainstream release I've heard in years.

[Streets]

Re: Nas: Untitled

What'd be the point?

Of the things 50 cares about, he far exceeds everyone else. He cares about 2 things, making money and being a gangster.

Agreed. That's how LL beat Canibus. Bis was the better rapper, but LL had the success and just rapped about the crap he cared about and in the end, won the battle in most peoples eyes.

In terms of sales, he's been the most successful rapper since he's come out. In terms of actual copies moved (thus canceling out the doubling of the Outkast album), the 2 most successful albums since GRoDT came out have been...GRoDT and The Massacre. He's had more top 10 singles than any other rapper and he's only released about 3.5 albums worth of stuff.

Agreed. The man is a marketing genius and knows how to make hit songs.

In terms of "being a gangster", well, he's the only mainstream rapper with anywhere near the certified criminal past that Jay Z, NWA, and pretty much any gangster rappers talk about. All of them claim it, but 50 has proof that he did it. Granted, this is probably the most pointless thing in rap, but for some reason it apparently matters.

This I don't really agree with. Like many rappers (Jay included) 50 sold some drugs as a youth. 50 has the added "street cred" of being SHOT nine times while going to his car to retrieve some jewelry. Mind you, he didn't shoot anyone, he himself was shot. That doesn't necessarily make him tough. As Jay-Z (who shot his own brother over some jewelry) would say, "ya'll respect the one who got shot, I respect the shooter".

An Ether 2 track would just be a strawman. 50 claims that Jay Z and Nas are better than him on earlier songs, plus, while he wasn't as good as either of those two, he was a much better rapper before his shooting.

This I agree with. And to add to your point, I feel that Nas and Jay have more to lose and little to gain being that they are already established legends in the game. 50 ain't on their level, and thus has a lot more to gain beefin' with these guys.

From their lyrics, Nas and Jay would much rather be 50 than 50 would ever want to be them.

This I think is a big stretch. 50 and Jay's lyrics are both about hustling and making money, and Jay-Z is more caked up then 50, has more longevity in the game thus far, more classic albums under his belt, and is respected by most of his peers in Hip Hop as an amazing lyricist, some going as far as calling him the greatest to EVER do it.

Nas on the other hand makes alot of hood/gangster music, but if you think he wants to be Fif, then you have no idea what Nas is about. The thing that made Illmatic so great is that Nas wasn't necessarily glorifying violence in every line like most "gangsta rap". He was more of a narrator saying, "this is reality as I see it growing up in QB, and yeah it's violent". Even his most violent, gangsta, criminal rhymes (the Nas Escobar persona created during It Was Written) were told in storybook fashion. Rather than saying, "respect my gangsta! Look how tough I am" in every line, he damn near created big budget movie scripts akin to Goodfellas. He was rapping about mafioso, drug lords, "Pacino life", mansions, and stuff way bigger than the "hanging on the corner and selling drugs and hustlin'" stuff that Jay and 50 rap about.

Not only is Nas' "gangster" different than 50's, the guy raps about much more than guns, women, cars, and money; and street cred is not really all that important to him nor is selling billions of records. Nas' albums contain aspects of politics, religion, fantasy, hard reality, love, loss, poetry, race, conspiracies, etc.

I highly doubt either Nas or Jay would want to be 50.

In fact I think 50, if anything would want to be Jay, having his money-power-respect.

[Cebby]

Re: Nas: Untitled

Anyone know why Nas would go at Fif? And yeah I guess you're right, Fif hasn't really claimed he's the best lyricist or anything.

Could be the HHID stuff again. It could be Kobe/Shaq syndrome. Or, it could be that 50 is still a top 3 rap figure with Kanye and Jay.

On first listen, I already felt I had just experienced a classic. The flow/content is simply superior to any mainstream release I've heard in years.

Nas is like Ghostface to me where it takes me a few plays to even understand what he's talking about sometimes. It took me about 25 listens before I realized I Gave You Power was a concept song. Plus his horrible arrangements are well, horrible. For example, I really like the America song, but putting it after Hero was stupid, as was following Sly Fox with him talking over one of the better beats on the album. And towards the end, I just don't like it. I hate Busta, Project Roach just wasn't good, and We're Not Alone has easily the worst hook I've ever heard. I'm assuming he stole it from a cheesy 80s group project raising money for the whales. The next song could have been done much better is all I'll say on that. Plus non-Tupac sample of the hook sucks.

But I've taken those 5 songs off for a 10 track album, and I figure I'll add a song or two from the mixtape.

[SageInfinite]

Re: Nas: Untitled

Agreed. That's how LL beat Canibus. Bis was the better rapper, but LL had the success and jut rapped about the crap he cared about and in the end, won the battle in most peoples eyes.



Agreed. The man is a marketing genius and knows how to make hit songs.



This I don't really agree with. Like many rappers (Jay included) 50 sold some drugs as a youth. 50 has the added "street cred" of being SHOT nine times while going to his car to retrieve some jewelry. Mind you, he didn't shoot anyone, he himself was shot. That doesn't necessarily make him tough. As Jay-Z (who shot his own brother over some jewelry) would say, "ya'll respect the one who got shot, I respect the shooter".





This I think is a big stretch. 50 and Jay's lyrics are both about hustling and making money, and Jay-Z is more caked up then 50, has more longevity in the game thus far, more classic albums under his belt, and is respected by most of his peers in Hip Hop as an amazing lyricist, some going as far as calling him the greatest to EVER do it.

Nas on the other hand makes alot of hood/gangster music, but if you think he wants to be Fif, then you have no idea what Nas is about. The thing that made Illmatic so great is that Nas wasn't necessarily glorifying violence in every line like most "gangsta rap". He was more of a narrator saying, "this is reality as I see it growing up in QB, and yeah it's violent". Even his most violent, gangsta, criminal rhymes (the Nas Escobar persona created during It Was Written) were told in storybook fashion. Rather than saying, "respect my gangsta! Look how tough I am" in every line, he damn near created big budget movie scripts akin to Goodfellas. He was rapping about mafioso, drug lords, "Pacino life", mansions, and stuff way bigger than the "hanging on the corner and selling drugs and hustlin'" stuff that Jay and 50 rap about.

Not only is Nas' "gangster" different than 50's, the guy raps about much more than guns, women, cars, and money; and street cred is not really all that important to him nor is selling billions of records. Nas' albums contain aspects of politics, religion, fantasy, hard reality, love, loss, poetry, race, conspiracies, etc.

I highly doubt either Nas or Jay would want to be 50.

In fact I think 50, if anything would want to be Jay, having his money-power-respect.

. Great Post.

[Cebby]

Re: Nas: Untitled

This I don't really agree with. Like many rappers (Jay included) 50 sold some drugs as a youth. 50 has the added "street cred" of being SHOT nine times while going to his car to retrieve some jewelry. Mind you, he didn't shoot anyone, he himself was shot. That doesn't necessarily make him tough. As Jay-Z (who shot his own brother over some jewelry) would say, "ya'll respect the one who got shot, I respect the shooter".

He also got popped with 10 ounces of crack. Not quite kingpin, but realistically, that's probably more drugs than just about any mainstream rapper was selling. I mean, once you start dealing with a half-ki of hard, there's no reason to rap. The money isn't better, and if you get arrested with anything more than that, you aren't going to have time to rap. If Ether is remotely true, then Jay-Z's kingpin image is silly.

[ehh]

Re: Nas: Untitled

Plus his horrible arrangements are well, horrible. For example, I really like the America song, but putting it after Hero was stupid, as was following Sly Fox with him talking over one of the better beats on the album. And towards the end, I just don't like it. I hate Busta, Project Roach just wasn't good, and We're Not Alone has easily the worst hook I've ever heard. I'm assuming he stole it from a cheesy 80s group project raising money for the whales. The next song could have been done much better is all I'll say on that. Plus non-Tupac sample of the hook sucks.

I agree, this album is just out of wack to me and most of the beats/hooks are cheesy as hell. It's almost like this is a promo and every song could be tweaked/re-done a little bit to make each song better. I've still only listened four times but it's hard to get past this stuff, I mean, it's not as bad as "Big Girl" but some of it is pretty bad. The lyrics are heat though, those alone will get this enough play for me this summer - most likely when no one else is in the car.

[Bornindamecca]

Re: Nas: Untitled

This I don't really agree with. Like many rappers (Jay included) 50 sold some drugs as a youth. 50 has the added "street cred" of being SHOT nine times while going to his car to retrieve some jewelry. Mind you, he didn't shoot anyone, he himself was shot. That doesn't necessarily make him tough. As Jay-Z (who shot his own brother over some jewelry) would say, "ya'll respect the one who got shot, I respect the shooter".

I gotta disagree here in terms of 50's street cred. I know a few guys that knew him, and he used to be a bigger, fatter guy, and was known as a bully that people called to slam heads. So far as I heard, from pretty reliable sources (grew up in the same area), 50 is a genuine tough guy and neither Nas nor Jay would want to be locked in a room with him.


LOL@ the idea of respecting Jay for shooting family over trinkets.

I agree with the sentiment that rap isn't about being a gangster, nor should it be, but I do like to keep the facts straight.

[Streets]

Re: Nas: Untitled

I gotta disagree here in terms of 50's street cred. I know a few guys that knew him, and he used to be a bigger, fatter guy, and was known as a bully that people called to slam heads. So far as I heard, from pretty reliable sources (grew up in the same area), 50 is a genuine tough guy and neither Nas nor Jay would want to be locked in a room with him.

I don't doubt that 50 is tougher than Nas and Jay, and could whoop either of them in a fight today (you see how cut he is??). That's not really what we were talking about. We were talking about Nas and Jay wanting to trade lives with 50 based on their rap lyrics. I already discussed Nasty Nas in detail, so that argument can be deaded. And as far as Jigga is concerned I still think 50 would much rather be in Jay-Z's place (though really, none of them are crying about their lives).

LOL@ the idea of respecting Jay for shooting family over trinkets.

I think I worded that wrong. I made it sound like Jay-Z was bigging up the fact that he popped his brother as a means of saying "look how tough I am", which is not at all true. If you listen to "You Must Love Me" (from Vol. One) he talks about the incident in a very somber way, by no means glorifying his "gangster". That was worded poorly on my part.

I agree with the sentiment that rap isn't about being a gangster, nor should it be, but I do like to keep the facts straight.

I agree with the first part, as far as the second part goes, I never denied 50's street cred. I just said that Nas isn't all about street cred, and Jay dealt in drugs and has had some incidences in his past (popped his brother, stabbed his manager, etc.). I don't think any of them should be respected for their priors, but I was just throwing that out there.

I was gonna dead this argument before, but since it was brought up again, lets look at the FACTS. Does 50 still live in the hood? (this I really wanna know, b/c I have no idea). Is being a gangster really that important to him, or is it a means to making money (the thing that in the end, is REALLY important to him?). I think the things that are important to 50 are important to Jay-Z; money, power, and respect. Jay-Z has more of all three than 50. President of Def Jam, part owner of the Nets, and owner of Roc A Wear gives him both money AND power. And he has the respect of his peers as one of, if not THE greatest to do it. If you think 50 wouldn't want that you're nuts. The man said himself on one of the Beef movies that every rapper wants to be the greatest, if not, then they are in the wrong profession. So its a fact that it is important to 50. But the thing is, Jay is widely considered the better artist with more money and power.

[Ice Cream Truck]

Re: Nas: Untitled

Not trying to quote any of the long posts, but 50 has a lot of street cred. I heard he was good with his hands too. He would have put up a good rap battle a few years ago (listen to 'Be A Gentlemen' on YouTube, JayZ diss track), but now he really can't rap like he used to.


Anyway, I wonder what kind of numbers this album will do.