Mar 15, 2016 Illmatic, It Was Written, and The Lost Tapes are undeniable. to be honest, you could argue for Life Is Good, Stillmatic, even God's Son and Hip Hop Is Dead.
Mar 16, 2016 I feel Stillmatic is definitely a classic. It was Nas' return to being admired as a lyricist again. Illmatic, It Was Written, Stillmatic and Lost Tapes are it to me, but I agree about Life Is Good, God's Son and Hip Hop Is Dead. I'm a big fan of I Am too, but I know it's not as revered as those other ones, so I put it a notch below. I think God's Son gets criminally underrated. I just don't understand how Stillmatic is getting overlooked by so many. I understand there was a couple skippable songs, but that album was so big for Nas' career, especially his respect within the genre. It's one of the albums I'll never forget the first listening experience of it. Total goose bumps, and I felt many Nas fans had similar reactions.
Mar 16, 2016 i think you actually hit the nail on the head for why it's getting overlooked. if you remove the album from its context--and many people on this board are too young to have known how impactful it was when it dropped--it's a borderline classic, a half-step below Lost Tapes and IWW. but when you consider how important it was to nas' career (and to new york rap at the time), it's easy to push it into the classic category.
Mar 16, 2016 eh. this is reductive at best. new slaves is one of the best-written songs of his career.
Mar 17, 2016 I remember for the longest time, I considered it Nas' greatest album. Over the years, and as the nostalgia has worn off, I have definitely lowered it to his 4th best album. I still definitely believe it's a classic though, but I think it's a flawed album, if that makes sense. It's really difficult to explain time periods to people who just weren't fans at the time. That's why the 90's hip hop scene is so hard to convey. The Jay Z and Nas beef was so gigantic, especially on the East Coast, it just dominated everything hip hop. When Nas dropped Ether, as juvenile and overrated as it seems in hindsight (c--- a fella, gay z, etc), it was like a f---ing jolt to (like you said) not only Nas' career, but New York and hip hop in general. It literally dominated all hip hop outlets, whether magazines, TV shows on MTV/BET, radio, etc. I really am jealous of all NY citizens at the time who were hip hop fans. It must've been one of the most exciting things to be apart of, and Stillmatic and Blueprint were obviously HUGE in generating that, not just because of Takeover and Ether, but from the overall quality of each album.
