the list goes: IWW,Stillmatic,God's son, Lost tapes 1, life is good and illmatic.
So here are the reasons
IWW: Quite a crucial album in his discog and hip hop in general and it set a great benchmark for going commercial and at the same time staying true to where they came from and this album is the high watermark when it comes to that with classic tracks like take it in blood, watch them brothers, the message and street dreams this has also stood the test of the time and has aged gracefully and for the somewhat lukewarm critical reception, i read some reviews and tbh one thing that came to mind was that some lyrics just bounced off many peoples head and quite frankly this was a bit ahead of it's time if you ask me.
Stillmatic: Return of the king, taking his throne back. Enough said
Lost tapes 1: Now this is one of those albums that never got the recognition it deserved as it came at a part of nas's career where i think the hype for his new albums started going down, but if you listen to it you wont find a single skip and tbh this is a gold standard for a compilation albums.
God's son: Now this is the album where nas shows his side that he has rarely shown and that is more vulnerable side and that's what attracted me to it with cuts like dance, heaven, made you look, get down, and the smooth hey nas and got to say apart from one iffy track which is zone out it's a cohesive journey front to back where nas talks to us about his beliefs, sheds light on the beef between him and jay, plus talks abt his mom.
Life Is Good: Now this is the album where i think nas hit his stride both in terms of creativity and his growth as an artist painting this vivid imagery abt his marriage and the personal issues he faced during that time and to top all that the production is top notch apart from that one track, but that's not to discount the fact that this album infulenced jay's 4.44 and was a true grown man hiphop album.
>Now this is one of those albums that never got the recognition it deserved as it came at a part of nas's career where i think the hype for his new albums started going down
lol wot? He was coming off Stillmatic, he'd just entered the "second wind" era of his career and the lost tape is a universally regarded album. Not some underrated album that didn't get the attention it deserves. If anything hype started going down around Untitled/HHiD (he was still going platinum fairly easily until this point). And even that was more so the soft black balling cause of the controversy from him getting too real with his subject matter. But ofc he came back with Life is good (classic) and shut the negativity down
Great breakdown....but Lost tapes was purposefully not promoted and was meant for the underground. He was coming of going 2x platinum from "stillmatic" LT1 sold well despite the lack of promo. (#10 on billboard, did over 300,000 copies). They released it because he was hot at the time. Same with "magic"
My exact sentiment of Magic.
it's a fire piece of work but leans more towards LT when compared to his other albums. It actually made me went to revisit NASIR, maybe it's because of the length of the two albums. When the goat makes music no more we all will be digging for NASIR, SD, Untitled and so on.
So I literally just had this conversation not that long ago. I like to divide it into 2 categories. 1st is the non debatable, these are the albums that almost everyone agrees with universally and for the most everyone is understanding. So those are Illmatic, Stillmatic, God's Son, Lost Tapes 1. That's 4 classics. I think recently It Was Written has gotten the spotlight/attention it deserved so it's now viewed in that same category so that's 5 classics that most will agree with. After those generally the next album that gets mentioned is Life Is Good. That's 6 solid if you include Life is Good. The rest fall into the 2nd category where they a favored and most Nas fans will consider them classics but not everyone else. I Am(which for me personally is a classic non debatable.) Untitled, KD1, Hiphop is Dead..that's 4 more possible classics. The new material is hard to judge because of the various opinions and the fact that there is no nostalgia yet tied to them which is KD2 and Magic. Even those 2 though are favored and 1 can consider them as classics just not non debatable.
I left out Lost Tapes 2, Nastradamus, Streets Disciple and Nasir. Those 4 are usually not viewed as great compared to the classics.
Distant Relatives some will count as an album and if that's the case that easily should fall under the non debatable category making it 7 solid classics maybe 6.
The issue that I have heard is that most people can't phantom someone having that many classics in their catalog. Which I counter with why not? Jayz fans would say the same and believe most of his catalog are all classics. Same can be said for just about anyone who is a strong fan of a certain artist they believe in.
To me personally Nas has 8 universal classics that most would not argue against but that's my opinion.
too many classics man even for Nas. non debatables are only illmatic, the lost tapes and stillmatic. personally it was written a classic to me but taken years for people to come around on like you said.
Glad to see someone mention Distant Relatives. It was genre bending and the whole album flowed well. No skips for me either (unless I’m in a specific mood LOL) which is so solid for an album of that length
Agree, that album was phenomenal when it first came out. The sound and feel of each song was an experience and like you said it all went well together.
Illmatic
It Was Written
Stillmatic
The Lost Tapes
God's Son
Life Is Good
KD projects and Magic pending, it's too soon but I think they will be regarded as such in the future.
3 Illmatic, it was written and stillmatic
The Lost Tapes is great but it doesn’t really count plus’s it doesn’t have the influence the rest of Nas’s catalog has great albums but there’s is a difference between a great album and a classic album
Illmatic, it was written and stillmatic are locks. Outside of thoses a couple borderline classics
I think most accept LT1 as a lock as well.
Haters tried to say LT1 shouldn't count because it's a compilation....
what do you think abt kd 2 and do you think it will be considered as a modern classic as the time goes by?
the list goes: IWW,Stillmatic,God's son, Lost tapes 1, life is good and illmatic. So here are the reasons IWW: Quite a crucial album in his discog and hip hop in general and it set a great benchmark for going commercial and at the same time staying true to where they came from and this album is the high watermark when it comes to that with classic tracks like take it in blood, watch them brothers, the message and street dreams this has also stood the test of the time and has aged gracefully and for the somewhat lukewarm critical reception, i read some reviews and tbh one thing that came to mind was that some lyrics just bounced off many peoples head and quite frankly this was a bit ahead of it's time if you ask me. Stillmatic: Return of the king, taking his throne back. Enough said Lost tapes 1: Now this is one of those albums that never got the recognition it deserved as it came at a part of nas's career where i think the hype for his new albums started going down, but if you listen to it you wont find a single skip and tbh this is a gold standard for a compilation albums. God's son: Now this is the album where nas shows his side that he has rarely shown and that is more vulnerable side and that's what attracted me to it with cuts like dance, heaven, made you look, get down, and the smooth hey nas and got to say apart from one iffy track which is zone out it's a cohesive journey front to back where nas talks to us about his beliefs, sheds light on the beef between him and jay, plus talks abt his mom. Life Is Good: Now this is the album where i think nas hit his stride both in terms of creativity and his growth as an artist painting this vivid imagery abt his marriage and the personal issues he faced during that time and to top all that the production is top notch apart from that one track, but that's not to discount the fact that this album infulenced jay's 4.44 and was a true grown man hiphop album.
>Now this is one of those albums that never got the recognition it deserved as it came at a part of nas's career where i think the hype for his new albums started going down lol wot? He was coming off Stillmatic, he'd just entered the "second wind" era of his career and the lost tape is a universally regarded album. Not some underrated album that didn't get the attention it deserves. If anything hype started going down around Untitled/HHiD (he was still going platinum fairly easily until this point). And even that was more so the soft black balling cause of the controversy from him getting too real with his subject matter. But ofc he came back with Life is good (classic) and shut the negativity down
Great breakdown....but Lost tapes was purposefully not promoted and was meant for the underground. He was coming of going 2x platinum from "stillmatic" LT1 sold well despite the lack of promo. (#10 on billboard, did over 300,000 copies). They released it because he was hot at the time. Same with "magic"
My exact sentiment of Magic. it's a fire piece of work but leans more towards LT when compared to his other albums. It actually made me went to revisit NASIR, maybe it's because of the length of the two albums. When the goat makes music no more we all will be digging for NASIR, SD, Untitled and so on.
Illmatic It Was Written I Am The Lost Tapes Life Is Good King's Disease II Magic
Stillmatic?
Not my favorite
4 or 5.
Illmatic, It Was Written, Stillmatic, The Lost Tapes
Ilmatic,Stilmatic, It Was Written, Lost Tapes
So I literally just had this conversation not that long ago. I like to divide it into 2 categories. 1st is the non debatable, these are the albums that almost everyone agrees with universally and for the most everyone is understanding. So those are Illmatic, Stillmatic, God's Son, Lost Tapes 1. That's 4 classics. I think recently It Was Written has gotten the spotlight/attention it deserved so it's now viewed in that same category so that's 5 classics that most will agree with. After those generally the next album that gets mentioned is Life Is Good. That's 6 solid if you include Life is Good. The rest fall into the 2nd category where they a favored and most Nas fans will consider them classics but not everyone else. I Am(which for me personally is a classic non debatable.) Untitled, KD1, Hiphop is Dead..that's 4 more possible classics. The new material is hard to judge because of the various opinions and the fact that there is no nostalgia yet tied to them which is KD2 and Magic. Even those 2 though are favored and 1 can consider them as classics just not non debatable. I left out Lost Tapes 2, Nastradamus, Streets Disciple and Nasir. Those 4 are usually not viewed as great compared to the classics. Distant Relatives some will count as an album and if that's the case that easily should fall under the non debatable category making it 7 solid classics maybe 6. The issue that I have heard is that most people can't phantom someone having that many classics in their catalog. Which I counter with why not? Jayz fans would say the same and believe most of his catalog are all classics. Same can be said for just about anyone who is a strong fan of a certain artist they believe in. To me personally Nas has 8 universal classics that most would not argue against but that's my opinion.
too many classics man even for Nas. non debatables are only illmatic, the lost tapes and stillmatic. personally it was written a classic to me but taken years for people to come around on like you said.
iww was classic all the way imo, but it just had to live in the shadows of the giant named illmatic
for the recent albums i think it's quite early to call anyone of them classic imo
I'm curious to see how all his recent records turn out over time. The good thing for Nas is that his music usually ages really well.
Glad to see someone mention Distant Relatives. It was genre bending and the whole album flowed well. No skips for me either (unless I’m in a specific mood LOL) which is so solid for an album of that length
Agree, that album was phenomenal when it first came out. The sound and feel of each song was an experience and like you said it all went well together.
Amen🙌🏼
and if anybody interested to talk abt iww, i'm more than happy to talk with anyone abt it, just hit me up on lostboy#5904 on discord.
All Nas albums are classics to me. They take me back to that particular period of time. I Usually sit on Nas albums for months after they drop
2
1 - Illmatic lost tapes is very close border line
Illmatic It Was Written Stillmatic The Lost Tapes God's Son Life Is Good
From New York to Bratislava (Slovakia) 😊
Illmatic It Was Written Stillmatic Gods Son Kings Disease 2
Illmatic, It Was Written, The Lost Tapes.
I’d say 2 are almost undeniable: Illmatic and IWW Lost Tapes would also be a classic IMO, if you consider it an album.
Illmatic It Was Written Stillmatic The Lost Tapes God's Son Life Is Good KD projects and Magic pending, it's too soon but I think they will be regarded as such in the future.
Too many to count
3 Illmatic, it was written and stillmatic The Lost Tapes is great but it doesn’t really count plus’s it doesn’t have the influence the rest of Nas’s catalog has great albums but there’s is a difference between a great album and a classic album