Stillmatic shirks the expectations placed on Nas as a teenager and the baggage he carried with him into his 30s.
Stillmatic gets as close to the source material as he's done in years.
“This is my ending and my new beginning,” Nas spits on the album’s intro. But for an artist who built his rep traversing breath-defying lyrical heights, Stillmatic’s by-the-books beats and rhymes don’t sound like the start of anything good.
Coming off of two major duds in 'I Am...' and 'Nastradamus', Nas seriously had something to prove with the release of his first 2000's album. 'Stillmatic' takes huge steps in the right direction, and renewed Nas' place at the top of the rap game.
Ether is a pretty shocking diss track targeted towards Jay-Z. It's brutally unabashed in not holding any punches, something we haven't seen with many, if any, diss tracks in recent years. It's a product of it's time and environment. I don't think some ... read more
People who don't pay attention to hip hop history really don't understand Stillmatic's importance. This isn't JUST the album with Ether, although that alone should make it noteworthy enough. More on that track later.
Ya see, Nas from 96-99 was, if anything, underwhelming. It Was Written faced considerable backlash at the time of release, and needed many years before it became favorable among hip hop fans. I Am.. and Nastradumbass completed the trinity of what I call, "If It Looks Like ... read more
This album cover actually makes the album less enjoyable to me and I don't know why... This is a decent album with some good songs. But DAMNNN, One Mic is one of the most overrated songs Nas has ever dropped. And this album is full of overrated tracks. Most of this album aged poorly for me, especially the production. Nas's rapping is still great, but I would argue it's not as good as on some of his previous albums. It's definitely not at the bottom half of his catalog, but it's also not near ... read more
Nas is back, and better than ever here. Other than a few standout tracks with fantastic beats, I feel most of the beats here fail Nas to do him justice. Could have been even more epic with a better beat selection here.
Stillmatic is a strange album for me. On the one hand, it proves once again that Nas is one of the greatest rappers to ever grace the scene, with sharp and witty bars, paired with immaculate delivery. On the other hand, the production on this album is not great on many songs, and feels unusually dated. Still though, there is enough to like about the songs that do not sound like ancient relics to rate the album quite highly.
Favourite Songs: Got Ur Self a Gun, You're Da Man, Ether
Least ... read more
1 | Stillmatic (The Intro) 2:11 | 91 |
2 | Ether 4:37 | 92 |
3 | Got Ur Self A Gun 3:48 | 93 |
4 | Smokin' 3:47 | 79 |
5 | You're da Man 3:26 | 89 |
6 | Rewind 2:13 | 86 |
7 | One Mic 4:28 | 92 |
8 | 2nd Childhood 3:51 | 88 |
9 | Destroy & Rebuild 5:24 | 81 |
10 | The Flyest 4:38 feat. AZ | 87 |
11 | Braveheart Party 3:42 feat. Mary J. Blige, Bravehearts | 59 |
12 | Rule 4:32 feat. Amerie | 83 |
13 | My Country 5:12 feat. Millennium Thug | 74 |
14 | What Goes Around 4:59 | 83 |
15 | Every Ghetto 3:28 feat. Blitz | 83 |