i know who i paid, god. searchlight publishing.
there’s a pretty (ahem) passionate argument that’s been going on at passion of the weiss for the last couple of days, regarding nas’ untitled (alternate title: wink, wink) album. jeff thought the record was terrible (he pretty much goes at nas harder than anyone since “the takeover,” hence the post title), and there’s a holy war going on in the comments section. it’s true that jeff doesn’t suffer fools, but i think this vitriol comes from the fact that he really respects nas, and really wanted him to do a better job, which is commendable.
i don’t think it’s nas’ worst album by any means (i am and especially nastradamus scraped the bottom of the barrel), but it’s considerably less great than the nigger tape, unquestionably his best work since the first ten tracks of stillmatic. although “queens get the money” is absolutely incredible (and like zilla with elzhi’s verse on “motown 25″ and weiss’ pick, “mike douglas” by el-p, “queens” is my pick for verse of the year), untitled marks the second official release that tried to make a statement and sort of fell short.
for the record, i felt as though with hip-hop is dead, nas threw our generation (those born between 1980-1989) under the bus, blaming all of us for soulja boy and D4L and whoever the fuck else, pretty much saying, “there’s no hope for the future.” with untitled, i think a bunch of what he’s saying is more thoughtful than most of his work written this decade, but the nigger tape drove the point home far better (maybe it really is because it had much better beats). i really had high hopes for this album, too.