Your money’s worth and at least 6 terrible skits
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That was the whole model. It wasn’t solely that rappers just had no quality control, but a full disc would sell better. Like @lastdino says “oh wow, 17 tracks” - then half of them are skits but it’s too late cos you’ve already bought it. Even on major label rock albums there’d be a tendency to throw a load of bonus tracks on the end to pad them out.
As CD sales became less important, major rap albums became more streamlined, then started ballooning again recently as it became evident that more tracks = more streams = more money and more equivalent “sales”. So Kanye’s intentionally going against the grain with super-short albums
Or he just can’t be arsed writing owt else
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Releasing 35 songs self-produced songs (largely decent) in a month isn’t exactly lazy either
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Aye, I mean at his early 00s production peak, he might have been releasing as much material, but it was all kind of similar chipmunk soul stuff he could churn out. So far these records have had different ideas and sounds, so while not as impressive as five full albums, and even though his own record did seem half arsed, particularly in terms of the songwriting, it’s not like he’s slacked off
had another listen to both last night.
think ye is actually quite good. its a bit forgettable perhaps but its not a bad album.
really like the Cudi one. Reborn is a track
You can listen to the Nas album here. Just having a skip through as I’d rather wait for MP3s/Spotify but it sounds decent. I’m digging the track with the Slick Rick sample.
Same. Maybe Nas realised that his last good album only had 10 tracks.
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Nas spent his whole career trolling a 10 song LP with DJ Premier that was just around the corner, then delivering something else entirely. I kinda find it endearing. Do we need another Illmatic? Do we need a 40+ year old Nas trying make one? He’s released a bunch of good albums and a huge number of great tracks and verses in his career since. So much so that Nas doing Illmatic was probably the weaker part of the Illmatic live show, it really came to life when he started playing his other hits.
Not gonna listen to this properly until it drops on Spotify, but couldn’t help skipping through, and I’m glad that the production isn’t a load of 90s NY boom bap retreads trying to recreate Illmatic. But hopefully the brevity will help
Didn’t say I wanted another Illmatic necessarily, but I’m surprised he never decided to take a similar approach with any of his other albums - short, no/few guest spots, one producer (or executive producer) - until now.
Still not on Spotify from what I can see, but found some MP3s I’ve been listening to in the meantime. Quite like it. The short length works for me, but that may be because I’ve found his last few albums a bit of a chore. Must have already played this about 6 times.
Oh yeah, I wasn’t saying you, just people in general. I agree that he could benefit from some editing but yeah that’s like 90% of rap music, so I’m used to it.
Apparently Mike Dean has been (and still might be) mixing the album. So maybe best to wait for the mixed version before rinsing it
Oh right - wonder where this leak is from? Doesn’t look/sound like was ripped from that video stream, but maybe it was. Quite want this t-shirt, but works out at £45 with shipping…
https://shop.nasirjones.com/products/nasir-t-shirt-i-digital-album
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As of 4 hours ago
https://twitter.com/therealmikedean/status/1007573640072876034
As of 9 hours ago
https://twitter.com/therealmikedean/status/1007495441636704256
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Sure it’s already been said, but this album reminds me a bit of Jay-Z’s 4:44. The difference being 4:44 didn’t sound like it was No ID’s album.
On Spotify now. Sounds good!
Not sure this partnership worked all that well on first listen
Kanyes vocals on everything are really nice.
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The anti-vax lyrics on Everything are some of cringiest awful shit i’ve heard in a long time. I hate how Nas always mixes in nonsense conspiracy theory shit with genuine political points, the former act to totally undermine the latter.
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Aye. Probably one of the underrated things that bring Nas albums post Illmatic down a notch. As soon as he stopped writing about what he saw in front of him, and started writing about wider issues, he became a lot less lucid and perceptive
Out of all the projects in the pipeline this was the one I was looking forward to most. After a couple of listens I can’t escape the feeling it falls short of the sum of its parts. Some of the production flourishes are great and there’s the odd verse that holds up but it just feels like Nas is grasping for subject matter. The artwork, the samples and the track names all feel like an attempt to frame the album as a political one but there isn’t really any substance or conviction to back it up.
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