A year after published a disappointing album with Kanye West, Nas releases a new compilation of songs, a sequel to the much-acclaimed "The Lost Tapes" (2002): it features unreleased tracks discarded from "Hip Hop Is Dead" (2006), "Untitled" (2008), "Life Is Good" (2012) and "NASIR" (2018). The MC keeps the tape personal, renouncing any guest outside rapping, while the production is provided by some of the best artists of the period, including Pete Rock, RZA, The Alchemist, No ID, Kanye West, DJ Toomp, Statik Selektah and Hit-Boy. Among the beatmakers, the most surprising is Swizz Beatz: the boy has two rhythms and, to my amazement, they are two of the best beats in the collection. Wonderful. Swizz Beatz has created two wonderful rhythms. Two. In a record. I write it several times because it's hard to believe. For me.
Swizz Beatz himself opens the compilations, with an excellent production shared with Araabmuzik in "No Bad Energy": ethereal and heavenly female background, uplifting, perfect drum, regular, smooth, dope delivery by Nas, killing the song in the classic sense. It's one of his best cuts of the period, beautiful. The rhythm of "Vernon Family" is so fresh that it seems to have been made yesterday, instead, it's from 2007, a sign of Pharrell Williams' skill behind the keyboards: the prodigy of the Neptunes realizes a crackling jazzy boom bap with a nice sample, excellent carpet and perfect for the explosive and energetic delivery of Nas, here very fit with an unstoppable style. "Jarreau of Rap (Skatt Attack)" is a song with Al Jarreau, Keyon Harrold to Eddie Cole rhythm: it's easily one of the worst songs Nas has ever released, the fact that it was pulled as a single on a record with 15 other much better tracks it's quite extravagant and curious. The song is annoying from the first seconds and from the initial hook: Nas wants to do an experimental song going to combine hip-hop and scat, it simply doesn't work.
Statik Selektah puts the entire record back on track with "Lost Freestyle": fantastic sample from Angela Bofill's "Accept Me", light and quick snare drum, somehow accessible, fresh, clean, crisp, smooth delivery by Nas. That's a good three minutes in the midst of some of the less successful choices on this tape. "Tanasia" lowers the level of the compilation: the sample chosen by RZA is good, "Mother Russia" by Renaissance, which goes oriental vibes to the song, nevertheless, the piece struggles to go forward and is cumbersome. The hook is one of the least successful of Nas, it just sounds bad, while his rapping seems almost slowed-down by the sample section that Wu-Tang producer decides to take, especially in the first part, since from the second one, the rapper improves in style and gives Wu-Gambino, mid-nineties, Escobar Season vibes. The three verses should make you understand the appreciation Nasir Jones has for the work of Robert Diggs. Hit-Boy produces "Royalty", a track that from the very first moments seems destined for radio / pop audiences: his boom bap rhythm is lively and good, Nas delivers average, with less energy than usual, almost resigned, while singer RaVaughn fails to lighten a pretty heavy hook.
Eric Hudson delivers a bright and glossy ballad rhythm for "Who Are You": light boom bap, slow drum, excellent samples, relaxed mood, confident and smooth delivery of Nas, David Ranier performs the hook, excellent track among those recorded in the period of "Life Is Good". In "Adult Film", the magic is repeated: Swizz Beatz returns to the most feared song of the disc, he's credited both as producer and as guest, however, his production is spectacular. He samples "Reckoner" by Robert Glasper and also pays homage to "Raw (Remix)" by Big Daddy Kane, song that samples Glasper himself, fantastic elegant piano, eclectic drum, Nas Escobar's fresh, crisp, energetic, inspired delivery, he flows with impeccable style. Then comes Swizz Beatz and KILLS the hook, with a performance I have no idea how to describe: he sings on the hook and also performs a post-hook, as well as creating a short bridge, and he's just perfect. This tape is really strange: everything Swizz does here is free of any flaws, there's nothing that can be criticized negatively. A real pleasant surprise. Nas is unreachable in the second verse, then Swizz Beatz closes again. On an album produced by RZA, Pete Rock, Kanye West, No ID, The Alchemist, Statik Selektah, DJ Toomp and Hit-Boy, I never would have said that Swizz Beatz would be among the top producers. Yet it happened.
DJ Dahi & DJ Khalil provide a nice soundscape for "War Against Love", slow musical carpet, good drum machine, Nas pulls down socio-conscious bars with a slow and fit style with the chosen beat. "The Art of It" bears the signature of Pete Rock: hard, dusty, and dirty drum, excellent samples, jazzy boom bap, the producer keeps golden age vibes and Nas performs three stanzas with a weighted, energetic and flowing rapping, dope. J. Myers' hook resembles a tribute to the Fugees' "Fu-Gee-La". "Highly Favored" boasts the second rhythm proposed by RZA in this effort: it's certainly the producer who has disappointed the most in the project, but this beat isn't as poor as the previous one. It maintains a somewhat simplistic, lean boom bap that feels like it came out of an amateur or b-movie version of "Once Upon a Time in America": simple sample, slow and minimal drum machine, late nineties Wu-Tang Killa Beez vibes, Nas stabs the track with energy and determination.
Big props to DJ Toomp, who comes with a huge production for "Queens Wolf": timeless boom bap, quick drum, wonderful samples, Nas offers a deeply smoothness slow flow and a good fluid hook, in a track inspired by his passion for the cult-movie "Teen Wolf". The Alchemist produces "It Never Ends": his soundscape is a blessing, nostalgic boom bap with almost inaudible snare drum, who's preferred to a great piano sampled by Alan White's "One Way Rag", Esco delivers with a smooth, crisp, dope flow. The hook is a direct homage to Biggie. "You Mean the World to Me" is a 2006 song, leaked a couple of years later, Nas brings it back in this comp. Produced by Kanye West, the beat sounds better than most of that confusing jumble of things that was "Watch the Throne 2" with another name that came out of the Wyoming studio sessions the year before: a few superlative piano keys, Nas lets the rhythm breathe a few seconds, then attacks with a velvet, inspired, clear rapping. In the middle of his verse, Kanye plays Leroy Hutson's "Don't It Make You Feel Good" sample, and the beat takes on a soulful sound: maybe not the best choice for sample inclusion, but the mixing is perfect, Nas concludes the verse clearly, despite the sample seeming prominent. Kanye holds the sample for the duration of Nas' hook, which is repeated until it's almost a "second verse", then turns it off as the MC starts the last stanza, replacing it with a plaintive male sample and the piano keys. This cut would have been one of the best songs on "Nasir".
Can you hear it? The drum machine. Hard, slow, dirty, swirling, it collects dust directly from the street and spreads it all over the track: it's the sign that he's back. If you listen to the first ten seconds of these sixteen tracks you immediately recognize what Pete Rock's rhythms are, thanks to this single element. Personally, I find it extraordinary. "Queensbridge Politics" is one of the highlights of this record: the drum is perfect, Pete Rock combines it with an elegant and sad piano, Nas lets breathe the soundscape created by one of the best hip-hop producers ever. The choice is special. The music is special, from the first seconds, this union of drum and piano brings you a sad and gloomy mood: the MC delivers a single verse dedicated to Prodigy, who passed away two years earlier. Nas is focused, clean, crisp, deeply smoothness, he executes his lyrics with flawless style and excellent flow.
After a moment of reflection, the album completely changes atmosphere for the final choice of the disc, the original outro of a masterpiece album which is "Life Is Good", 2012: I want to exaggerate, stating that with the inclusion of this song at the end of that LP, it would be a definitive classic album. Amazing sample from "Happy Song" by The Dynamic Superiors, spoken intro by Nas on elegant piano and strings, with a beautiful, female melodic background by RaVaughn. Then, eclectic and incredibly fresh rhythm of No ID, which makes his way among the best producers of the compilation: perfect jazzy boom bap, light drum, RaVaughn melodic soulful background, extraordinary soundscape for Nas hardcore, energetic, aggressive, crisp and smoothness delivery. RaVaughn's wonderful hook, at her best, splendid. Escobar attacks with great energy and technical cleanliness in two other verses: when the last one is about to conclude, No ID places the synths sampled to give greater value to the last bars of the artist, before the outro, performed exclusively on an elegant piano. Magnificent outro. Magnificent track. The longest song is the one that has the greatest absolute replay value: is not something you see so many times on hip-hop albums. It's one of the highlights of the whole year, any genre.
The production is fantastic and appealing, the tracklist is magnificent and few disappoint: from my point of view, RZA is the only one that really doesn't respect the very high expectations of the project, but he's offset by a Swizz Beatz I've never seen and will probably never see again. I mean, the only time I remember him getting two good beats on the same album was on Jadakiss' "Top 5 Dead or Alive" (2015). Overall, I think it's the best production Nas has had in the last fifteen years: Pete Rock, The Alchemist, Kanye West, DJ Toomp, No ID and Statik Selektah prove to be still among the best producers on the circuit.
From a lyrical, technical and execution point of view, Nas is still among the best. There are a few flaws in his disk, and they show up when he can't express himself with satisfying rapping over mediocre rhythms: excluding the single with Al Jarreau, which I consider one of his worst tracks ever, a total disaster, the weak points are represented by the choices "Tanasia" and "Royalty", all close together and in the first section of the album. 90% of the time, Nas's overall performance is flawless and sometimes superior to that of all other contemporary rappers.
Released by Mass Appeal and Def Jam, the album achieved some international success, reaching the top ten on the Billboard 200 and the top 5 on the UK rnb chart. Insiders, on the other hand, destroys the project, burying it completely. I beg to differ from the professionals, rightly harshly criticized by fans: the record is a bit messy and irregular, however, it's very solid and robust, resting on a very good foundation, with excellent dinamic lyricism and a modern and clean production. I arrive on this record with low expectations after the disappointment of the previous LP, and I come out with one of my favorite projects by Nas.
The cover, extraordinary, faithfully represents the entire project and, in hindsight it's very easy to write, it also represents the critical review that the album itself will receive: the tape is at the center, white, crystalline, clean, clear, wonderful and pure, begins to be harassed. It gets shot, eaten, consumed, punctured, scorned, mocked, bombarded by criticism. But the tape is still alive. It survived. Neither the artist nor the record were affected — his name and the title of the tape remain unharmed by this brutal and senseless siege — and the cassette can still be played. With all its flaws, its shortcomings, its bruises, it still stands very well on its own: and it's awesome.
Highlights: "No Bad Energy", "Vernon Family", "Lost Freestyle", "Adult Film", "The Art of It", "Highly Favored", "Queens Wolf", "It Never Ends", "You Mean the World to Me", "QueensBridge Politics", "Beautiful Life".
Rating: 8/10.
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