It’s been two years since Nasir Jones proclaimed Hip-Hop lifeless, and now, the world waits for the release of his most anticipated album since Stillmatic. Untitled is set to be released on July 15th, and the album features some of Nas’ most thought provoking song titles and lyrics that we’ve seen from him in some time, not to mention the original title of this album, (and also the original title of Hip Hop is Dead) Nigger. Pundits wondered if the album title was pseudo-device to garner attention for his album instead of a conscious attempt to address some of the bigger racial and social issues in Hip-Hop. After the release of his mixtape, The Nigger Tap, it was known that the Queens Bridge MC was taking this “nigger movement” seriously. Untitled proves to be Nas’ most intrepid album to date. The album, other than a couple misses, is a great one and is truly a gift for life long Nas fans. It’s not his greatest album (I’d rank it fourth behind Illmatic, I Am and Stillmatic), but that’s what makes his legacy what it is. Only a few artists can release albums lesser than their best and still have it received as great.
The album begins with ”Queens Get the Money” which features poignant riffs from the keyboard of Jay Electronica that Nas uses to set the tone for the rest of the album. He uses the time to address his critics who are “Talking that ‘Nas done fell off with rhyming, he rather floss with diamonds,’” and rapper 50 Cent when he raps, “Take 27 emcees, put them in a line and they out of alignment/ My assignments since he said retirement/ Hiding behind 8 mile and The Chronic/ Get's rich but dies rhymin, this is high science,” all while keeping with the “Nigger” theme as he goes on to call G-Unit porch monkeys.
The second track “You Can’t Stop Us Now” was produced by one of Nas’ favorite producers, Salaam Remi, who uses the a popular sample of Barrett Strong/Norman Whitfield song, “Message From a Black Man,” a sample first found on Mos Def’s “True Magic” album and most recently on RZA’s latest single, “You Can’t Stop Me Now.” Nas touches on ideas of American patriotism and the African American culture that has been proliferated throughout the country over the course of our nation’s history. He explains that African American’s have influenced this country’s culture more than that what history books will tell us when he raps, “Octoroon skin tones/ Slave food turned to soul food/ Collards and neck bones/ Betsy Ross sewed the first American flag/ Bet she had a nigga with her to help her old ass.”
The album moves on to a J. Myers produced track, “Breathe,” one of the few tracks Nas could have done without on this album considering what he left off. It has the feel of one of those high synthesizer singles that was left off of Nastradamus. On Breathe, Nas raps about nothing but material things. He has money, he has cars, he has a yacht. We get it. I guess every album has a one “drugs, money, hoes” cut quota. Breathe is a whole lot of “Intense hustle/ It's pain like a pinched muscle 'Til it rains and my Timbs stain my socks/ 'Til I dodge enough shots and the presiding judge Slams a mallet and says 'life', I'ma guap/ Then I cop, then I yacht, then I dock.” I could have done without it.
Nas keeps things going with another miss on this album in “Make The World Go ‘Round” featuring The Game and Chris Brown. The Cool & Dre beat (with co-production from the Game) has a poppy, R&B feel with an array of synthesizers that would make Pharrell blush. For me, this song is hard to listen to. Nas, for the second straight track, is still on his materialistic flow (and he wonders in “Queens Get the Money” why critics say he’d rather “floss with the diamonds), the last thing I needed was a second Nas and Game collaboration and Chris Brown still can’t sing. I almost vomited when Nas ended the final verse with a line that moved from hilarious to disgusting in two bars flat: “My plaque's from album sales/ Y'all is ringtone platinum/ But .99 cents adds up/ I don't hate 'em, I congratulate 'em/ The new young Prince with young Mike Jackson on the same track.”
The fifth song on the album is “Hero,” featuring Keri Hilson. This is going to be the song people who don’t buy the album remember it for. Keri Hilson may not be able to sing, but she sounds good on this Polow Da Don produced song and definitely helps to make a catchy chorus. Nas, once again, continues his drugs, money, hoes theme for the first two verses of this song. The final verse, however, he talks about the reason he switched his album’s title from Nigger to Untitled, when he spits, “It's universal apartheid/ I'm hog-tied/ the corporate side/ Blocking y'all from going to stores and buying it/ First L.A. and Doug Morris was riding wit it/ But Newsweek article startled big wigs/ They said, Nas, why is he trying it?”
Stargate’s production on “
The social commentary continues in the Stic Man produced “Sly Fox.” This is one of two songs on this album I feel could crack my list of top-10 Nas songs. “Sly Fox” is a tale about the proliferation of the biased mass medium, with the majority of the shots being taken at Fox News. He explains how these large media outlets aren’t telling us what to think, but they’re telling us what to think about. Nas’ word-play is ridiculous throughout the song, especially when he spits the line you’ll probably find in every review of this album, “The Fox has a bushy tail/ And Bush tells lies/ And Foxtrots/ So I don't know what's real.”
In “Testify,” a track produced by Mark Batson that sounds like it should have Jaheem’s voice on it, Nas calls out his so-called fans. He asks if they would stand “with a
“N.I.G.G.E.R (The Slave and The Master),” is a lesson on how we, as African Americans, seem to feel the need to downplay our own culture, something you’d think was blatantly obvious, but Nas makes the listener feel like this is a topic new to philosophy when he raps, “It's not unusual, To see photos of dead homies' funerals/ Aluminum foil on t.v. antennas/ Little TV sit on top the big TV eatin TV dinners/ Girls die they hair with kool-aid/ They gave us lemons we made lemonade/ But this nigga’s paid.” I’ve heard a lot of people saying that Nas could have done without this D.J. Toomp produced track, but I feel the smooth strings really add to the feel of the song.
In his album titled song, “Untitled (Louis Farrakhan),” we get glimpses of the Nas form Illmatic and Stillmatic with stories that dazzled us. In this song, Nas compares himself to Louis Farrakhan, and tells us that he’s a revolutionary escaping assassination attempts. Were placed where the story is being told and as he raps, we can actually see bullets whizzing past his head when he raps, “Another bullet passed by--missed me/ Wondering who plotting to get me/ Alphabet boys still plotting against me/ To hush me up and stuff me in the pockets of history/ You won't remember why they came to clip me/ When time go by, you'll soon forget me.” Stic Man of Dead Prez produced “Untitled.” The heavy bass line, light drum pattern and smooth horns add to the intensity of the first verse. Although the story of this song doesn’t even crack his top 15, the song is still enjoyable. Well done.
Were moved from a story of a revolutionary to the second song on the album in “Fried Chicken,” that I would consider placing in my list of top-10 Nas songs. I like every element of this song, the use of the metaphor of how fried chicken is just like everything else black men indulge in that will ultimately kill them (i.e. women, drugs, and well, fried food as illustrated when he raps, “When we done, I need rest/ Don't know a part of you that I love best/ Your legs or your breast/ Misses Fried Chicken, you gon' be a nigga death/ Created by southern black women/ To serve massa, guest/ You gon' be a nigga death”) the collaboration with Busta Rhymes (always a good choice) and production from one of my favorite young producers in Mark Ronson that sounds like it jumped right off of Ronson’s album, “Version.” The horns that Ronson lay down every 32 bars of this song gave me goose bumps. Suffice to say, I loved this song.
Nas continues his metaphorical theme with the Eric Hudson produced “Project Roach,” featuring the Last Poets.
In “Ya’ll My Niggas,” Nas talks about how he has no apologies about how he gained everything he has by glorifying “drugs, money and hoes.” He uses this song to question his materialism and to question why his fans have made him famous because of it when he raps, “The rhetoric of Martin King just saint around no more/ Dave Bowie ain’t here James Baldwin neither/ They all were leaders/ But they ain't help me get this Porsche two seater/ A lawyer left the hood he never looked back/ To be a Fortune 500 CEO it took rap/ So what if my pants sag with my hat turned back/ The same swag got our merchandise flying off the rack.” This is another J. Meyers produced track, much better than the first one, but I’m still not really a fan.
In “We’re Not Alone,” Nas continues to question himself and some of the topics he’s rapped about in the past as seen when he says “I used to worship a certain Queens police murderer/ 'Til I read the words of Ivan van Sertima,” a reference to his song “Get Down” where he stated that he admired Pappy Mason, a man who is serving life in prison for killing a police officer. Also, I feel that Nas believes in life off of earth, because this is the second song where he makes a reference to UFO’s (the other was when he referenced William Cooper’s book, The Pale Horse of The Future), which is interesting considering the song’s title is “Were’ Not Alone.” Stic Man, for the third time, got the credit for the production of this song. The looped piano riff along with the deep, but soft synthesizers give this song an eerie feel, the production is effective.
The Album concludes with “Black President,” featuring Johnny Polygon, a song with looped Tupac and Barack Obama samples. Although he had good intentions, the beat of this song is just as corny as the lyrics are. I love the message, but I feel like the song was half assed. Nas talks about his unequivocal support for Obama and how America is ready for the change an African-American president can bring for this country when he says, “Y'know these colored folks and Negroes/ Hate to see one of their own succeeding/ America, surprised us/And let a black man guide us.”
After a couple of albums that weren’t received well within the Hip-Hop community, Untitled is truly a gift for a genre that has been down for the last seven to eight years. Untitled should be received well because of its honesty and its thought provoking lyrics. Unlike his previous two albums Untitled should be one of Nas’ career highlights.
Stay Hideous
-PB
(Word count to date: 35,490
66 days and 64,510 words to go)
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