What Happened To Nas after Illmatic?

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Overall Illmatic is still his best imho but the other stuff he did is good too, its not like he didn't make a good album after, he just didn't overclass it but as you said Illmatic can be considered one of the best hip hop albums ever, so its not a simple thing lol
 
If this was the Coli id neg the shit outta you OP.

It Was Written, Stillmatic, the Lost Tapes, Life is Good are meh?

God's Son? Untitled? Distant Relatives? I Am?... Not classics but they're damn sure not "meh"

Streets Disciple and Nastradamus are probably the only two albums in Nas discography I'd consider "meh". (Wasn't much of a fan of HHiD either tho)
 
Nas won. No need to try after such an intellectual victory. And I say this having really liked some of his later output.
 
He started hanging out with Raekwon and Ghostface, who got him deep into Tony Montana/Mafia shit. That's when his Nas Escobar persona was born. It may have been corny but it led to some dope ass albums and collaborations.

It's funny how The Firm's album was considered to be an enormous disappointment back then, but would probably be an instant classic these days. Higher standards.
 
Most of his albums after Illmatic are really hit or miss, he isn't very good at finding good beats. I stopped listening to his stuff at Hip Hop Is Dead, most of his beats are just weak.
 
I like I Am, Stillmatic and N****r.

Also that collab album he did with Damien Marley was great.

It's not that he hasn't had highs after Illmatic, it's that he's definitely had lows. I remember Hip Hop Is Dead sucking which was ironic given the name.
 
I would just love one album where he actually listens to the beat he is rapping on and stays on it for every track.

Nas albums are only good as acappelas these days.
 
I know music tastes are subjective and blah blah blah there are no "wrong" opinions.

Bullshit. OP you're flat out wrong and ignorant and need to listen to It Was Written 100x in penance.

Nas is the GOAT.

Edit: You don't even know about The Lost Tapes? FOH with that.
 
Questlove has a great story about this:

The ideology of what I considered "real" hip-hop died at the 1995 Source Awards. I was literally at its funeral-- I sat three rows behind Nas. In the audience, the Bad Boy camp was on the far right, all the West Coast and the Southern rappers were in the middle, and on the far left were all the New York underground rappers like Wu-Tang, Mobb Deep, Nas, Busta Rhymes, and us. That was the day when Suge called out Puffy, and there were fights in the audience. I felt like a bomb was going to detonate.

Nas' body language that day told the whole story of where we were about to go. The more he got ignored for Illmatic, I literally saw his body melt in his seat. Almost like he was ashamed. He just looked so defeated. I was like, "Yo, he's not gonna be the same after this shit." None of us were the same after that day. I feel like the true underground lost its oxygen that night.
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Hip Hop said:
And Life is Good was also an amazing album.

I don't get OP at all.
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Frozenprince said:
I know music tastes are subjective and blah blah blah there are no "wrong" opinions.

Bullshit. OP you're flat out wrong and ignorant and need to listen to It Was Written 100x in penance.

Nas is the GOAT.

Edit: You don't even know about The Lost Tapes? FOH with that.
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this - OP is deku scrub tier

FZZpure said:
OP are you Vlad
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haha damn

ThoughtsOfSpeaking said:
I would just love one album where he actually listens to the beat he is rapping on and stays on it for every track.

Nas albums are only good as acappelas these days.
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man people (rightfully, many times) knock Nas' ear for beats, but he had No ID & some greats on Life is Good, and even if stuff like God's Son somehow wasn't your thing (who didn't fuck with Get Down?!), 9th Wonder's mix is nice too
 
"Made You Look" is--while having a completely different vibe obviously--as good as anything on Illmatic. Too bad the rest of God's Son is straight up garbage.

Anyways, what happened to Nas is that he can't pick a beat for his life.
 
He became one of the most universally acclaimed rappers of all time and continues to get the respect of rappers old and new? But he didn't invest in the right kind of liquor and got a divorce, so lames clown on him like they're not sitting at home in a nest of crispy socks and sadness.
 
Timedog said:
Too bad the rest of God's Son is straight up garbage.
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Get Down
Thug's Mansion
Heaven
The Cross
Book of Rhymes
and like half of I can...you livin fantasies, doggy - i reject your deposit

WanderingWind said:
He became one of the most universally acclaimed rappers of all time and continues to get the respect of rappers old and new? But he didn't invest in the right kind of liquor and got a divorce, so lames clown on him like they're not sitting at home in a nest of crispy socks and sadness.
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hot damn, my man WW letting heads know
 
Literally the best? Eh, I don't know about that. It's up there.

I thought he made a concerted effort to produce after his last big album? I might be getting him confused with someone else.
 
Legit one of the greatest rappers of all time. Even if he only made illmatic and It Was Written, we'd still look at him like the GOAT.

What exactly was wrong with everything after illmatic, in OP's opinion?

I mean, illmatic was nice in every way. I think that one of the best and most understated pieces of illmatic's brilliance is how straight-forward it is. The album gets right to what we're there for: lyrics, beats, vibes, etc and keeps our attention for the whole thing. No filler. No skits. Just bars upon bars and lyricism. Can't knock perfection.

That doesn't mean the rest of his discography isn't nice.
 
His debut album is widely considered the greatest hip hop album of all time ( I agree) but he was 19. That's like graduating High School and becoming President of the United States, everything after that will be compared to that. And even thought nothing has surpassed that album, he has had dome pretty dope albums (and duds, NAStradamus wtf?)
 
Really don't think this is fair. When your debut album is "literally" considered the greatest rap album ever...where do you go from there? How do you match that? People have been unfairly holding him to that standard for awhile. But at the same time, you don't generally become regarded as one of the greatest rappers of all time based on one album. Nas' worth can't be questioned.

It Was Written is a great album. Stillmatic is a great album. God's Son is a good album. Lost Tapes is a great album. Life Is Good is a really good album.

IMO this is like saying Jay-Z is weak because his first album is his best album too.
 
Indelible said:
Most of his albums after Illmatic are really hit or miss, he isn't very good at finding good beats. I stopped listening to his stuff at Hip Hop Is Dead, most of his beats are just weak.
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That's pretty much it. Lyrically, Nas was always running circles around your top 5.

But the beats, damn. I think even he admits to not being great in that department.
 
What happened? Hip hop died.

jk, but I like several other albums of his. I actually really like the collab he did with Bob Marley's kid/relative? All the popular rappers of the 90s still make music (and a lot of it is still good) you just have to look for it
 
He made one of the best hip hop records of all time. Even if all he does is sit on his hands for the rest of his life after that moment he'd still always be one of the greats.
 
It Was Written is top notch stuff. I'd love for anybody drop an album of that quality this year. The Message, Nas Is Coming, If I Ruled the World, I Gave you Power are sweet.
 
wtf? Life is Good and the one before that were fantastic. and i never got the hype with Illmatic.. don't like any track on it that much, they're just ok to me. go figure.
 
Timedog said:
"Made You Look" is--while having a completely different vibe obviously--as good as anything on Illmatic. Too bad the rest of God's Son is straight up garbage.

Anyways, what happened to Nas is that he can't pick a beat for his life.
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Get down? Cross? I can?
Lord_Balkan said:
What happened? Hip hop died.

jk, but I like several other albums of his. I actually really like the collab he did with Bob Marley's kid/relative? All the popular rappers of the 90s still make music (and a lot of it is still good) you just have to look for it
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And this. Smh. Distant Relaives is another good one.
 
ARE YOU REALLY CALLING IT WAS WRITTEN, MEH!? THE FUCK?

Not to mention all the great cuts and features he released post-illmatic... Ether, Nas is like, Made you look, One Mic, Eye for an Eye, Fast Life, Verbal Intercourse, Purple, Get Down, As We Enter, War, Locomotion, Still Dreaming. It goes on and on and on. He's not perfect and some of his beat selection is suspect but the overall package you get is still better than like 95% of what else is out there in hip hop.

The man has been putting out amazing music for twenty-plus years and is as good as he's ever been.

From halftime https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wbq3axLwamE
to this track he released a few months ago with Rick Ross
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VfsS-0ffVyw who the fuck in rap has this longevity and consistency!? Jesus...
 
What happened is that he turned around and released an even better album, It Was Written.

Come at me.
 
After Illmatic he went on to be solidified as one of the icons in hip hop and one of the most influential MC's in hip hop's history. I'm in the camp of It was Written being a classic and better creatively than Illmatic (still one of the most classic albums in hip hop though). Stillmatic is a classic, the only albums I felt weren't high caliber were Nastradamus, Streets Disciple and Hip hop is Dead. Immaculate discography other than that. I would add IMO, but these are facts ;-)
 
He made some good albums and some great singles? Yeah, no single album was maybe as cohesively brilliant but his work post-Illmatic in aggregate is probably > his work pre-Illmatic.
 
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