Hip-Hop Is Dead – Nas

Year	Album	Artist	Stars	Score	Genre
2006	Hip Hop Is Dead	Nas	★★	47	Hip-Hop

Man, I held Hip-Hop Is Dead in pretty high regard in my mind for years because I really dug it when I was back in high school listening to it for the first time. But revisiting it now in full for the first time in about 15 years, it leaves a lot to be desired. 

“Hip-Hop is Dead” is still a cool song about the state of the industry in the mid-2000s, with dueling 1960s  drum and guitar samples that do a lot of the heavy lifting. “Black Republicans” was a huge deal at the time for bringing Jay Z and Naz together for the first time after their longtime rivalry and beef stemming from the mid 1990s. The track featured booming drums, braggadocious, almost super-villain-ish trumpets to build up the anticipation and fun, back-and-forth wordplay from both emcees. The two Kanye West produced joints here —  “Still Dreaming” and  “Let There Be Light” — bring smooth, cool production and softer, more reflective moments compared to the rest. And Snoop Dogg sounds good on “Play on Playa,” bringing together the 1990s’ east and west coast powerhouses.  “Hold Down The Block” and the darker  “Not Going Back” are average tracks on average beats. 

The rest of the record though is really forgettable. That has little to do with Nas — who I think does fine here and still shows off his lyrical prowess — and everything to do with the consistently bland, same-tempo and undynamic production. Maybe they sound worse because they’re put alongside some of the more exciting beats that are elsewhere on the album, but that run of four songs at the top is a huge bore. While Nas’ bars are good, he does have a very consistent flow and delivery that’s easy to appreciate but also get tired of, so the lackluster beats do little to add any excitement or to give you the energy to pay attention to what he’s saying. And the one time he tries to sound different — “Who Killed It?” — the song’s an absolute disaster.