Nas Discusses Leaving DJ Premier Off “Life Is Good”
Posted July 16th 2012 at 4:03 pm by gimantalon
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Ok I’m gonna committ some Hip-Hop blasphemy but f*** Nas! I love Nas I got Illmatic, I got It Was Written I even got I Am… & Stillmatic. But seriously Nas is not giving what the true fans who buy his music what they want, I know Life Is Good sounds aight and NO I.D. is a nice switch up from Salaam Remi but a vast majority of Nas fans wanted a album with DJ Premier, with AZ, with Pete Rock, with Cormega, with 9th Wonder. Nas is still one of the biggest and most respected names in the industry there’s no reason why he shouldn’t be able to get these people in the studio, make it happen Nas because your true fans arn’t gonna wait another 10 years to listen to what your “cookin up with Premier”. I’ve been hearing that line for a decade already make it happen.
^^^^ i totally agree. God people cal be stupid sometimes. “ohhh im an ARTIST, i gotta be creative”. most of these “famous” people dont live our lives. they live lives very different than ours, and dont really “BUMP” music. They have NO IDEA what fans want. i still think Nas is trying to be as famous as jay-z. What im really trying to say is nas is being retarded, and needs to just make HIP-HOP. the large pro track is great, but contradicts what Nas said in this VERY interview! like “i cant use primo on “this” album”. whatever u fucking weirdo. goddamn i hate when artists lose who they are.
@RC …yeah you did commit some hip-hop blasphemy now shut the f*ck up!
@RC…AMEN BROTHER. Don’t get me wrong the album is dope, at least 10 times better than anything he’s put out since God’s Son. It’s better, because he actually has some decent beats this time around. I say FUCK SALAAM REMI, 90% of his beats are boring sounding garbage. Most people on the internet are already saying this album is a classic and all I got to say to them is: LET THE ALBUM BREATH A WHILE BEFORE YOU START SCREAMING IT’S A CLASSIC. There is a big difference between fans and stans(dickriders), and the difference is stans think everything an artist does is the best thing ever and a fan doesn’t let any artist get away with making sub par material. I’m a fan, I won’t let anyone slide – my favorite rapper is 2Pac and I still think he made a lot of bad or just OK songs…basically just like every other rap legend. With all that being said, I honestly think he’ll never EVER make anything as good as Illmatic, It Was Written or Stillmatic…sorry, but that’s just how I see it.
Nasty and queens story tracks is dope, the rest or the album is average at best
ok, i loved illmatic.
I was expecting the second album to be dopes as the first.
it was not.
the track `The Message` was dope. no doubt.
also the track ` Shootouts`was dope…
Street Dreams, c`mon? do you really like that beat? c`mon… for real… if it is the version with R-Kelly, handz down… but…ya know what i mean?
The other albums man??? what about the other NAS albums?
How did i felt when i listened the voice was riding on THE WORLD IS YOURS, LIFE IS A BITCH, NEW YORK STATE OF MIND, on the wack beats we ve been listen on the other albuns??? Terrible…
Thought i was a NAS fan, but for real? Im not.
Nas is like and second child hood. dope shit…but the rest…
terrible.
So i gotta say i`m a big fan of who produced him on that album.
But fan of NAS? No… i am not.
Well Nas is still trying to get over his wife (hence the green dress on the cover album) and i’m glad Premier never says anything bad about Nas. Nas is not as raw as he used to be and is now considered a “well fed” artist.
Dead End Hip Hop is the new Source. They are no holds barred and tell it like it is when breaking down an album.
smh.. his reasoning for not having premo is non-sense. He is giving props to preem.. But it doesnt make sense.. Because Preem is a vet you cant get a track from him… SMH..
haha I have to laugh at all these comments critisizing nas catalogue..
it was written is a classic!! message, street dreams (yes that is a dope song), i gave you power, TAKE IT IN BLOOD (one of the illest nasir tracks ever), affirmative action, shootouts, live nigga rap, if i ruled the world..and you call that album NOT dope..cmon
stillmatic: the first half is classic, the intro alone is pure dopeness..got urself a gun, youre da man, ONE MIC, cmon too many to name..god’s son: the cross, made you look, get down, book of rhymes, dance, heaven, mastermind, stop being narrow minded..of course I’d love to hear nas over some premier, but that doesn’t take anything away from the quality of nas’ albums he delivered throughout the years..
oh yeah and just wanted to add: lost tapes
I rest my case
this album is bad… nas is desapointing fans. we all still lookin 4 some new ny state of mind, nas is like even got yourself a gun.
Anything benefits from Premo, that’s for sure. As a huge fan of both Nas and Premo, I, like everyone else, want to see them on a track together again. It doesn’t help any that 6 yrs ago they said they were going to do a WHOLE ALBUM together but we can barely get 1 official album cut. We kinda got another taste with Nas on that Bumpy Knuckles remix and the RE:GENERATION track, but that isn’t good enough for everyone… On another note, people need to quit complaining about it!! I guess when it’s meant to happen we will see Nas with Premo again. Same with everyone else (Pete Rock, AZ, Large Pro, etc). Nas can prove he can make quality material without them. I think people are so caught up on dude re-creating ILLMATIC that they are so quick to dismiss all of his other releases. Nas is never going to make another Illmatic! just like how Jay-z will never make another RD, or (insert your favorite rapper & their best classic album). It’s 2012 not 1995 so people need to give it up, for real. And I will agree with THE TRUTH on this one. People need to let new music sink in before they start screaming CLASSIC. Again, I am a huge Nas fan, and I enjoy pretty much all of his albums except Nastradamus. but at no point in time I scream CLASSIC cause because it is Nas. I know everything he makes isn’t gold. LIFE IS GOOD is a great album but y’all need to look up the word classic before claiming it after giving an album one listen.
9th wonder’s remix of GodSon was Nas next best album to Illmatic. Just go back and listen to 9th Wonder’s remix of Made you look…..Speechless.
-WSJ
LOL, Nas gave no good reason for not working with DJ Premier. I can understand if he’s trying to still trying prove that he can release great material without him or that he didn’t feel a Premier beat would fit the mold of the album he made, but I think we’re a little overdue for a Premo and Nas collab. The last time when heard a Premier beat on a Nas album was 2001 with Stillmatic. I don’t understand why he doesn’t want to appease his fans.
Now on the topic of the 1992 Olympic basketball team vs. the 2012 Olympic team, it’s no question who would fair better. MJ @ age 29 vs. Kobe of age 33 – Jordan wins, and they had a obvious size and experience advantage.
It would have been correct to put Primo on the new album. Nas shouldn’t have been so direct stating that he didn’t want Primo on the new album. A few beats on ‘Life is Good’ are wack, Nas’ rhyming is tight, but Primo could have done memory lane part 2 or some new classics.
And its not an issue of time, Jazzy Jeff waited for Jill Scott so that she could make a cut on the Magnificent album back in the day. Nas could have waited for Primo. And yes, there’s being creative, and there’s making banging tracks with lyrics that match, simple formula are always a winner.
Hip hop is dead inside nas, and pete, prem, P, tip, and LES are the DEFIBRILLATOR….
Nas is dope when he wants to be but he lets his own insecurities get in the way. Illmatic is hot, better than any album Jay-Z put out (though Jay does have the all-around better catalog, but neither have the consistency that Ghostface has imo). It Was Written was misunderstood by me when it came out, like everybody else but it is also a classic, cinematic album. After that he fell off trying to catch up with Jay-Z, messing with trackmasters, al west and all these fisher price producers. I didn’t even think stillmatic was that great, it’s dwarfed by God’s Son but they couldn’t give both albums 5 mics since they already did that for stillmatic. Lost Tapes is doper than most of his actual “albums”. Streets Disciple was Nas trying to be a mature rapper, subpar album but it has one of my favorite tracks in “Remember The Times”. Hip Hop is Dead was a great album. N**** or untitled was just weird and not in a good way. Life Is Good is not one of his best, it’s kind of somewhere in the middle. He pays homage to the 90s (the greatest era in hip-hop. It pisses me off when reviews say it’s dated for that reason. Would a rock album that had a singer/guitar/bass/drums be considered dated?) but still feels the need to have r&b hooks. It’s half boom bap, half reaching. If he wasn’t gonna use Premier for this album or every album previous (hasn’t worked with premier for an album cut since stillmatic almost a decade ago) then when is he? Premier is the greatest producer of all time, hands down. The industry hates on him b/c he doesn’t compromise or sell out and he still continues to get steady work and stay on the radar. Nas needs to stop getting distracted on industry trends and what everybody else is doing and just focus on an album he wants to do; that’s how he got hot in the first place.
@Josh – Nas has a better discography than Jay-Z, though I’d say Jay has been more consistent, until recently with his last two albums. I actually thought Untitled was a pretty decent album, very well brought together and I think Nas had a nice concept that was especially relavant for the time it was released. Nas seems somewhat uncertain about his career, I think he wants to able to appeal to lots of people like Jay-Z, but in the process of doing that he loses some of his original fan base, so he’s constantly trying to be a “tweener” so to speak. If there’s one thing we can agree on is that he needs to do an album with Premo asap.
Nobody actually is asking the right question :
with a dope primo/Nas album (maybe the best ever), how could Nas possibly pay his monthly child support to Kelis? 😀
Platinum with Primo beats, we must be dreaming…and i guess that Nas is not looking for a critic esteem, he’s got it forever with his previous albums. He seeks survival money as rap as we used to love it doesn’t pay anymore.
in life there is one truth: youngsters spend money they don’t own so bet on productions with, as said Josh, fish price productions :D, even better youngsters could mess their parents and make them spend: remind this housewife lady i saw in a big music store in France…doesn’t know sh*t about rap(nor her girl obviously) but she was looking for a wack rapper album that had obviously heavy radio rotation. “hmm no gun on the front cover, no one burning French flag, an artist invited on TV as the next big thing in rap, hmmm yes i could buy it for my daughter”….
Nas is not competing with Jay anymore, he is fighting with lady gaga to get his piece of the pie on the top of the charts. Lil Jon and some others rappers don’t fight, they make collaboration with Lady Gaga and guetta (what a piece of sh.., used to love him when he was doing house only, but this guy killed the rap game 4 sure. he will be remembered for that, trust me) to please to young girls.
don’t shoot the messenger. i haven’t said i agreed with Nas choice, I’m just that robot in the Marvel universe : i am recording & observing 😉