For all the youngsters and dabblers out there, hip-hop is not dead, so calm down. If anything, hip-hop is deaf. Rappers, bloggers, and fans have become so averse to criticism that the mere title of this album flung them into defensive hysterics. So, Nas' plan worked. People are at least trying to come up with reasons why hip-hop is indeed alive instead of just stealing an album per week and dropping weird science on the internet. He wants us to care again, to think when we listen instead of simply consuming, because his career and the survival of the culture depend on it. Nas couldn't be a pop guy, even with Puff's help. He couldn't write a club song if his life was at stake, which, after "Oochie Wally" it probably should have been. And he certainly isn't going to make any money off his crew (see also: "Oochie Wally"). Nas is a writer, and he needs our attention. He needs us to read lines, between the lines, put it all together. He needs us to give a fuck about the art, the history, and the craft or we won't get what he's saying. Hip-hop isn't dying because Nas hates it; it's dying because not enough people love it. If that sounds corny or offensive, well, there's the rub, and Hip Hop Is Dead is made for you. If you lecture on rap forums all day, post daily pics on your blog of Lil' Wayne kissing people, wonder why we write about hip-hop on this site, or just want to know what the best rapper alive really sounds like, listen to this album.
For everyone else, the standard Nas disclaimer: Hip Hop Is Dead is not Illmatic. Nothing ever will be. Nas and I are roughly the same age, so when his debut came out in 1994, it was a humbling experience for me. I was struggling through term papers while this slightly older dude from Queensbridge was writing the great literature of our generation and collaborating with producers I considered legendary. Pete Rock, Gang Starr's DJ Premier, Tribe's Q-Tip, and Large Professor of Main Source had produced a dozen or more of my favorite albums by the time they worked on Illmatic, and each dropped a gem on Nas, a rookie. (The Black Album was not the dawn of Dream Team production.) AZ, the only guest, got one verse on "Life's a Bitch", a verse so perfect it still haunts him in the same way Illmatic's every verse haunts Nas. It's a flawless album, my personal favorite, and I can listen to it today and not be bored for a second. Unfortunately, every album subsequent to Illmatic contained increasingly longer stretches of boredom, mine and Nas'. Even his recent "comeback" albums (aren't they all?), including the infamous "Ether"-ing of Jay-Z on Stillmatic, were better in theory than in practice-- the go-to criticism of Nas, his poor taste in beats, holding true for every failure. But, he was also getting lazier, less-focused, saying things without thinking and probably smoking way too many blunts. It was largely a lost decade for Nasir Jones.
When Nas signed with Jay-Z's Def Jam, I didn't guffaw. I didn't care. I was happy that Nas was making money, but I didn't believe rumors of a Nas/Premier reunion or the Return of Nasty Nas. It was what it was: a business deal. Whatever that deal promised Nas, though, pays off on Hip Hop Is Dead. He is, in fact, extremely nasty on almost every track, as committed and consistent as he's been in a long time. Beginning with the L.E.S. & Wyldfyer-produced royal rumbler, "Money Over Bullshit", Nas leans into the mic and doesn't fall back until he's said his last word on the a capella "Hope". The two tracks with Kanye West are exceptional for both artists, confirming the chemistry of Late Registration's "We Major" and bracketing the meditative middle of the album. On either side of that soulful stretch are "Black Republican", the fantasy duet with Jay, and "Hustlers", or, Make-a-Wish for the Game. Jay and Nas are so ridiculous on a track together, it's almost depressing that it took this long to happen, and the Godfather II sample is inspired. The Game, in what should be his template, sounds great rapping on a song with the rapper whose name he is dropping, especially when it's Nas, whom the Game most closely resembles. The closeness of their voices actually makes the Game more tolerable by osmosis.
A few of the beats are mediocre, which, again, is Nas' Achilles Heel. But if I'm going to talk negatives, it's really only necessary to mention one song. Will.i.am produced three on the album, and all of them, at least his contribution to them, are decent to good. However, "Who Killed It?", Will's odd nursery-noir beat, is the worst concept song in the history of hip-hop music. Normally, I'm with Nas any time he wants to inhabit a persona or inanimate object, but here he assumes the voice of-- I shit you not-- character actor Edward G. Robinson (kids: think Chief Wiggum). The first time I heard it, I was genuinely shocked. The content is irrelevant. Truly, deeply embarrassing, but that's what the delete key is for, people. Let's hope it was the Black Eyed Pea's idea.
At least Nas is trying again, though. He's pushing himself, and that's what his appeal has always been. He's a virtuoso MC, but it has never been about style over substance or dazzling technique. Don't get me wrong, there are verses on Hip Hop in which he rattles off minute-long torrents with more internal rhymes than Rick Ross had rhymes in toto on his album. But Nas is telling stories again and attacking the mic, and that is what is important. While his successors might impress with intricate wordplay, too often they're just saying what's on their minds instead of getting something off their chests. Maybe that's what Nas means by Hip Hop Is Dead, that the art of rhyme is lost, but he also must accept some of the blame that he liberally places on others. It was his lack of effort, after all, that created a vacuum for others to fill with emptiness.
In the end, Hip Hop Is Dead is the album I'll give to people in 20 years when they ask who Nas was. More than Illmatic, it represents the real Nas-- not the ideal-- the MC with all the skill, all the rhymes, and all the insight who sabotaged himself with bad decisions. There aren't too many here, which is why I'll recommend it. Whether he will revive hip-hop or not is for history to decide; I'm not sure it needs reviving. The need for Nas to play a vital role in whatever happens, though, is something I am sure of, so I'm glad he's back with the living.
