Hailed as one of hip-hop’s “Top 5, dead or alive,” Nas continues to reign as a heavy-weight in rap. Though his penmanship is sharp, with production from Kanye West, NASIR is just an okay release. It’s concise, but random and struggles to find direction with definitive purpose. On “Cops Shot the Kid,” Nas raps “White kids are brought in alive/Black kids get hit with like five/Get scared, you panic, you’re goin’ down/The disadvantages of the brown/How in the hell the parents gon’ bury their own kids/Not the other way around?” Though “Everything” is encouraging, NASIR falls short on the lackluster “Bonjour” and “Simple Things.”
Rating: 7/10
Mass Appeal/Def Jam
Producer: Kanye West
