Still Nasty After All These Years?
So it’s Jigga v. Nas is it? Out for blood are you? Arms tied together, knives drawn, like those two dancers turned gangsters in Michael Jackson’s “Beat It” video? So you waited for Stillmatic as proof positive that Nas really is lying in the lyrical gutter somewhere, stripped of his medals, fallen back to earth. Or, depending on what side of the fence you’re on, waiting for that next hot verse that will give Nas bragging rights again. Doing a slow drive by this major hip-hop car wreck? Well that’s too bad because that’s not what Stillmatic is about, and the rubber neckers should be ashamed of themselves. Nas still has the illest laid back flow, but he’s sharpened his tongue with wisdom and conscience. In actuality, the immature backstabbing and Sally-Jesse-Raphaelisms of tracks like “Ether” hold back the better, more thoughtful Nas searching for that light beyond the bling of diamonds.
If you want the dirt, check the disc’s opening half. “Stillmatic (The Intro)”, “Ether”, and “Got Ur Self a…” are all street rattling playground disses. Nas -wasting ink on reclaiming his top dog position (holding his heater to Jay-Z’s temple telling him to come out of Nas’ throne) and getting caught in the testosterone of the moment- relies on emasculating Jay-Z with several lame homophobic charges. But, his lapses into machismo are tempered by a very rare compassion among the dog eat dog hip hop elite: “…what’s sad is I love you cause you’re my brother…my child I watched you grow up to be famous and now I smile like a proud dad watching his only son who made it”, and he scolds Jay-Z for “only being concerned with dissing women…” but precedes this line with the confounding “y’all niggas deal with emotions like bitches.” Nas’ moral reach seems to be exceeding his grasp, but at least he’s reaching.
If you want to listen to all that posturing, go for it, but I say skip ahead to the classic breaking circle 808 hand claps of the Large “which rock have you been under?” Professor produced “Rewind” where Nas spits a verse in reverse. “2nd Childhood” is vintage verbal syrup Nas kicking stories of people on the block living in denial and stuck in immaturity over a funk bouncer (phoned in by DJ “just another day at the office” Premier) with tight syncopated slap bass and drums. Where was Premo for duds like “You’re Da Man” and “Destroy & Rebuild”? “Rule” sounds like the PC first draft of the captivating “My Country”, the album’s artistic master stroke; featuring an un-credited AZ as a soldier who receives a letter from one of his boys in jail played by Nas. “Hummers and Rangers in the desert…troopers looking for manslaughter…just saw the first dude I met here his head came apart/what a bloody mess/a slug fest…at night I hear grown men crying…every time I hear the wind I think a slug went in….” Never mind the catchy hook, with its parallels between street life and the experiences of an American solder, I could drop a political critique on this song alone. This must be that thing I’ve heard referred to as “songwriting”.
Nas closes on a high note with “What Goes Around”, a powerful grocery list of the poisons in our communities, bringing his smoldering slow burn to lines about girls “up late night on they mother’s cordless/thinking a perm or bleaching cream will make them better when they gorgeous.”
In the end Nas plays to his strengths as storyteller, not battle rhymer, and mostly succeeds. It’s true much of the production doesn’t live up to Nas’ lyrical skill: “Smokin’”, “Destroy & Rebuild”, “Every Ghetto”; but it’s not about the beats. Nas is a poet, an author, and it’s about the stories, stories, stories. Even on the lackluster tracks, Nas’ characters spill into our minds and walk our cerebral streets. If Premo, Large Professor, and Nas (he co-produces “One Mic”) handled more of the production, these minor stumbling blocks could have been avoided. With subject matter as diverse as war, maturity, and the public school system, it’s obvious this album wasn’t inspired by Jay-Z’s recent tongue lashing. So, get this album -if you must- to feed the fire burning over the Nas v. Jay-Z controversy, but that’s not what Nas wants to talk about and it’s a shame if that’s all we hear.
OVERALL RATING: 3/5
REVIEWED BY: realrap
ADDED: 2002-05-29
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