Articles tagged "nas"

Column: Busted Headphones

It Ain’t Hard to Tell: The Legacy of ‘Illmatic’

by Quentin B. Huff

[20.Jul.09] :. The "half-man, half-amazin'", Nas' persona is part myth and part "everyday kid" from the Queensbridge projects.

Recent columns

 

Music Review

Kevin Rudolf: In the City

by Evan Sawdey

[15.Jan.09] :. Kevin Rudolf thinks he's a bigger star than he actually is, and how dare you think otherwise.

Recent Music reviews

 

PopMatters Picks: The Best Music of 2008 Feature

The Best Albums of 2008

by PopMatters Staff

[19.Dec.08] :. PopMatters presents our 60 best albums of 2008, highlighted by the return of British trip-hop legends and some infectious American indie rock by way of the Cascade Mountains.

PopMatters Picks: The Best Music of 2008

 

Column: Negritude 2.0

The Politics Inside Black Pop

by Mark Reynolds

[12.Dec.08] :. Will black pop artists still see themselves as outsiders now that a black person is President? Will they use their cultural platform to criticize him if need be, just as they did to help elect him?

Recent columns

 

PopMatters Picks: The Best Music of 2008 Feature

The Best Hip-Hop of 2008

by Quentin B. Huff

[12.Dec.08] :. A return to the mic nine years in the making, a hip-hop supergroup of sorts, and Tom Waits beatboxing: this year's top-shelf hip-hop is equal parts anticipation, teamwork, and wha?!

PopMatters Picks: The Best Music of 2008

 

Sound Affects

Dissecting Nas’ Untitled - Part 5

by Anthony Henriques

[21.Jul.08] :. Track eight...

Sound Affects

 

Dissecting Nas’ Untitled - Part 4

by Anthony Henriques

[16.Jul.08] :. Tracks six and seven...

 

Dissecting Nas’ Untitled - Part 3

by Anthony Henriques

[15.Jul.08] :. Tracks four and five: the triumphant pop songs...

 
PopMatters Pick

Music Review

Nas: Untitled

by Anthony Henriques

[14.Jul.08] :. Nas's ninth studio LP lost its title. Its content, however, deserves far more dialogue than the controversy generated by what he wanted to call it.

Recent Music reviews

 

Dissecting Nas’ Untitled - Part 2

by Anthony Henriques

[10.Jul.08] :. Tracks two and three...

 

Dissecting Nas’ Untitled - Part 1

by Anthony Henriques

[9.Jul.08] :. The PopMatters writers guide recommends that record reviews run somewhere between 500 and 700 words. Sometimes I struggle to get 500 words out of an album and sometimes I have a hard time...

 

Mama Said Knock You Out: Hip-Hop & the Family Unit

by Quentin B. Huff

[16.May.08] :. There are four hip-hop rules for families. One: Fathers, take care of your children and their mothers. Two: Don't talk about other people's mamas. Three: Be good to your own mother. Four: Repeat as necessary.

 

When They’re 65…

by Ben Rubenstein

[5.May.08] :. What will some of today's most well-known hip-hop artists be doing in 2035? Maybe they won't be running the music world, but they'll probably be doing something beyond applying Fixodent to their grills.

 

The Best Albums of 2007

by PopMatters Staff

[21.Dec.07] :. From tech house to Radiohead and Americana to indie and everything in between, PopMatters picks the best 60 albums of 2007.

 

The Best Hip-Hop of 2007

by Quentin B. Huff

[11.Dec.07] :. From Grandmaster Flash & the Furious Five to a dope album named Desire, hip-hop showed growth in 2007.

 
PopMatters Pick

Music Review

Jay-Z: American Gangster

by Mike Schiller

[9.Nov.07] :. American Gangster may never be seen as Jay-Z's defining moment, but it marks his comeback far more effectively than Kingdom Come ever even tried to.

Recent Music reviews

 

The NAACP’s Mock Burial of Its Relevance

by Mark Reynolds

[30.Jul.07] :. Our enemy is not the "N-word" itself; it’s whatever propels people to use it. We need healers, not language nannies.

 

Satanicpornocultshop: .aiff Skull

by Mike Schiller

[6.Jun.07] :. The .aiff Skull EP is little more than a vaguely interesting means to a massive headache.

 

Hip Hop Is Dead: Art, Culture, & Tradition

by Quentin B. Huff

[25.Jan.07] :. Homer, Dante, Milton, and Nas: It's bigger than Hip Hop Is Dead.

 
PopMatters Pick

Music Review

Nas: Hip Hop Is Dead

by Michael Frauenhofer

[22.Dec.06] :. In a fall where many stumbled and even Jay-Z slipped up, Nas is back with a record for history.

Recent Music reviews

 

Nas: Street’s Disciple

by Pierre Hamilton

[7.Jan.05] :. With middle age rapidly approaching, ghetto poet/prophet Nasir Jones settles in for the long haul. Of all his peers, he ages gracefully, although Street's Disciple two discs reflect the less-focused Nas of the past, a Nas that's ready to hand off the baton, but unsure what to do next.

 
PopMatters Pick

Music Review

Nas: Illmatic [Anniversary Edition]

by Marc L. Hill

[25.May.04] :. While the critical success of Illmatic has helped Nas’s career immeasurably, it has also been his greatest enemy. Subsequent albums have all been unfairly weighed against Illmatic.

Recent Music reviews

 

Nas: God’s Son

by Joseph 'dj postl' Jones

[14.Feb.03] :. Imagine, if you will, you are Jay-Z. It’s early December (2001) and you are getting’ ready to celebrate your birthday with a large group of friends and family. Christmas is right around...

 

Nas: Lost Tapes

by Marc L. Hill

[8.Nov.02] :. When you’re hot, you’re hot. After swimming in commercial mediocrity for years, Nas continues to ride the wave of success generated by a well publicized feud with Jay-Z, his questionable...

 

Nas: Stillmatic

by Marc L. Hill

[12.Jun.02] :. Like all true Nas fans, when I heard these words sung on the hook of the first single from his last LP Nastrodamus, I cringed. In addition to being a sub par track, the song forced me to...

 

Nas: Nastradamus

by Cynthia Fuchs

It’s standard practice these days to wonder what happened to the promise shown so early by Nas. It seems that as often as he’s changing his name, he’s also changing his attitude...