Nas Hip Hop Is Dead CD

Personnel: Adam Hill (viola); Vincent Henry (flute, clarinet, soprano saxophone); LeRoi Moore (saxophone); Bruce Purse (trumpet, bass trumpet, flugelhorn); W. Marshall Sealy (French horn); Mark Batson, Salaam Remi (keyboards, drums); Paul Cho, Mike Elizondo (keyboards).
Additional personnel: Marsha Ambrosius, Tre Williams, Chrisette Michele, Jay-Z, Kanye West, Kelis, Snoop Dogg, The Game, will.i.am.
Audio Mixers: Dylan Dresdow; Dylan "3-D" Dresdow; Kevin Crouse.
Recording information: Amerycan Studios, Hollywood, CA; Chung King, New York, NY; Encore Studios, Burbank, CA; Hit Factory Criteria, Miami, FL; Legacy Studios, New York, NY; Mandatory Entertainment; NRG Studios, N. Hollywood, CA; Record One Studios, Sherman Oaks, CA; Sony Music Studios, New York, NY; Sunset Sound, Hollywood, CA; the Record Plant, Hollywood, CA; The Studio, Philadelphia, PA; Westlake Recording Studios, LA, CA.
Title and all, Nas's eighth solo album clearly intends to spark controversy. But what gives Nasir Jones the right to declare that HIP HOP IS DEAD? For one Nas's 5-mic debut album ILLMATIC represents the best of a by-gone era. Since then he's tried to find his place in the ever-evolving genre, flirting with the mainstream to mixed results, all the while mired in beef with former allies and childhood friends as well industry rivals. The fact that HIP-HOP IS DEAD is the product of his teaming with one of those former(?) rivals, Jay-Z, shows that business trumps beef--as Nas emphasizes on track one, "Money Over Bullshit."
The title cut, with its pounding Iron Butterfly beat and nihilistic lyrics, is profoundly provocative. And while the long-awaited collaboration with Jay-Z on "Black Republicans" will inevitably draw attention, Nas shows he's best on his own--doing his Sam Spade impression in the hard-boiled detective story "Who Killed It"; producing an unapologetic swansong to his hood life in "Not Going Back"; and spitting introspective street poetry in "Can't Forget About You." Nas is past trying to relive his ILLMATIC glory--and that's ultimately the point--yet HIP HOP IS DEAD contains both the gutter ghetto anthems and gritty brilliance that made him a legend in the first place.
Hip Hop Is Dead is not Illmatic. Illmatic stands as one of the most impressive debuts in rap music, and consequently has set up inevitable, and often unfavorable, comparisons with each of Nas' subsequent releases. And so it is practically a given that the two albums in fact do not compare, that the beats, the rhymes, the insight, the flow Mr. Jones had on Illmatic have not been duplicated here, and in all honestly, probably never will. Nas himself seems aware of this -- though he would never admit it -- as throughout the record he references the MCs, the producers, the DJs who made the music what it was and what it is today, many of whom were releasing material in the early '90s, when Nas first made a mark. He himself is one of them.
The statement that "hip hop is dead" is clearly meant to be controversial, and was, as rappers and rap fans alike exploded into debate after Nas declared it to be the title of his next album. But it's also a statement that the MC doesn't completely adhere to. He flip-flops between declaring that it has already gone, to warning of its imminent departure, to promising "to carry on tradition," to resurrecting it. But these inconsistencies don't come from contradictions in Nas' beliefs; rather, they stem from the fact that his biggest problem with hip-hop has nothing to do with current talent, but what hip-hop itself has become -- how it's magnified from an art form, from a way the ghetto expressed itself, into a commercialized, corporate entity that Nas himself is part of, something about which he feels more than a little guilty. This is most openly addressed on "Black Republican," which appropriately features an equally guilty (in terms of both improving and commercializing rap music) Jay-Z, who spits out better lines thanRolling Stone (p.72) - 4 stars out of 5 -- "Nas never solves the crime, but his point is implicit -- few MCs are taking the artistic chances he does."
Entertainment Weekly (p.84) - "[D]enser and more grandiose than the minimalist digital funk heard on rap radio." -- Grade: B
Vibe (p.109) - "HIP-HOP IS DEAD is a loud, expansive album, packed with brand names and big ideas -- and is arguably the best thing Nas has done since 1996's IT WAS WRITTEN."
XXL (Magazine) (p.133) - "Nas' latest opus comprises solid lyrics and layered beats and proves that hip-hip isn't dead, it's just been asleep..."
Mojo (Publisher) (p.100) - 4 stars out of 5 -- "A fully realised, painstakingly compiled assault on hip hop's slide into bling-ridden mediocrity."