Nas - Street's Disciple
 (Columbia Records)

- reviewed by Keshawnta J.

A double album is an endeavor that's almost become common place in hip-hop, yet rarely do the lyrical greats of the genre release these over inflated albums to their awaiting public. This could be because they feel that they can get their point across in a single album of 14 or so tracks, or they just don't want to have an album saturated with low level filler. Queensbridge's most notable poet, Nas, has decided to go the path less traveled by an emcee of his caliber and release a double album, the highly anticipated, "Street's Disciple". Unlike double discs in the past, this one is not watered down lyrically and even the filler tracks are better than most of what we are force fed via television and radio in this day and age.

While I feel this album album could have easily garnered 15 tracks of lyrical wizardry, the other 10 tracks do not come up short in anyway. Nas is a lyrical genius and "Street's Disciple" is more of what we've come to expect from him. While he may never be the most commercial artist, and his beliefs and hypocrisy are under constant scrutiny, his lyricism has never been denied. Nas will not go away and this is for the greater good of hip-hop.

Back in 1994 when I listened to Nas' debut album, "Illmatic", I got the feeling that Nas sat out on a bench in Queensbridge projects and crafted songs based on what he saw going on around him. more..

- reviewed by Keshawnta J.

A double album is an endeavor that's almost become common place in hip-hop, yet rarely do the lyrical greats of the genre release these over inflated albums to their awaiting public. This could be because they feel that they can get their point across in a single album of 14 or so tracks, or they just don't want to have an album saturated with low level filler. Queensbridge's most notable poet, Nas, has decided to go the path less traveled by an emcee of his caliber and release a double album, the highly anticipated, "Street's Disciple". Unlike double discs in the past, this one is not watered down lyrically and even the filler tracks are better than most of what we are force fed via television and radio in this day and age.

While I feel this album album could have easily garnered 15 tracks of lyrical wizardry, the other 10 tracks do not come up short in anyway. Nas is a lyrical genius and "Street's Disciple" is more of what we've come to expect from him. While he may never be the most commercial artist, and his beliefs and hypocrisy are under constant scrutiny, his lyricism has never been denied. Nas will not go away and this is for the greater good of hip-hop.

Back in 1994 when I listened to Nas' debut album, "Illmatic", I got the feeling that Nas sat out on a bench in Queensbridge projects and crafted songs based on what he saw going on around him. Ten years later, listening to "Street's Disciple" I feel as though Nas has moved on from the projects and is in the cut, chillin', reminiscing back to those very same "Illmatic" days. He tells many of the same stories, but from a different perspective. Listening to "Streets Disciple" I feel that Nas has new priorities, as evidenced in the constant references to his wife to be and the much calmer life he now leads. Nas also tackles some new issues such as the war in Iraq and the state of education in America. The lyric venom is still in tact, its just been redirected. Nas is 31 years old now and this album reflects that fact time and again.

On "American Way" he talks about all the things wrong with the American government, and calls Condoleeza Rice "a coon Uncle Tom fool," with no remorse. He also refers to his hip-hop peers as "rappers on a slave path."

On "A Message to the Feds, Sincerely, We the People" Nas openly challenges the government yet again. The song starts out with a dark and melancholy beat, the beat switches in the middle as does Nas' flow. None of this is as important as the point Nas is trying to make with this song about societal injustices and inconsistencies. Most if not all of the political topics Nas takes on have all been touched upon on his less celebrated "I Am" and "Nastradamus" albums, so this is nothing new. Hopefully, Nas has more people paying attention this go 'round.

On "These Are Our Heroes" Nas takes stabs at black people in the public eye who he believes are cooning for white America. He disses Kobe Bryant for sleeping with the white hotel employee in Colorado. He blasts the black actors and actresses that appear on television shows on the UPN and WB networks, Condoleeza Rice, Taye Diggs and the list goes on and on. This song is pretty ironic for someone as hypocritical as Nasir Jones. Though he has stayed pretty true to his artistry, we can all pick a few songs from most his albums where it's obvious that he was tap dancing for the powers that be from his record label. At times, particularly on the first part of the disc 1, Nas sounds awfully self righteous and judgemental. He seems to mean well, but some of his venom seems clearly misdirected.

Guest appearances are kept at a minimum, considering that this album is 25 songs strong. Featured are newcomers Quan, Emily and Scarlett. Nas describes Scarlett as a mysterious woman who entered his cypher and was ill enough to be featured on this album. She appears on back to back songs, "Sekou's Story" and "Live Now". The story on "Live Now" is a continuance of "Sekou's Story", but it pretty much lacks any continuity, which is something that can easily be overlooked by Nas and Scarlett's deliveries. Scarlett does a good job on "Sekou's Story", but she rips "Live Now", where she and Nas are both on their death beds reminiscing about the lives they've lived.

"Virgo" could be titled "Ladi Dadi 2004." This song uses the beat to Dougie Fresh and Slick Rick's classic party tale and features Dougie Fresh beat boxing like it's the 1980's all over again. He kills it. Nas and Atlanta rapper Ludacris both flow over Dougie's beat box and the song is fun and definitely a club banger with integrity, if there ever was such a thing. The lyrics are silly, yet not outlandish, with a sing-songy chorus where each rapper chants, "Baby girl won't you come and hold my hand, won't you come on and just chill with the Virgo." Ludacris' verse easily overshadows Nas' with lines like, "A little cute thing said what's yo' name/ I put my necklace in her face and said read the chain/ Ew Ew so stuck up/ She told me shut the fuck up." It's definitely a club song and probably the only one on the entire album.

On "Remember the Times" Nas' raspy voiced fiance Kelis challenges the rapper to name one girl from his past that he would like to sleep with one last time before they get married. He claims there isn't one, but he reminisces back to scenarios with different women. The song is pretty sexually explicit, but it works and is one of the standouts on the album. Kelis' presence is felt all over this album. Not only does she make a couple of guest appearances, but when you don't hear her vocally, Nas is shouting her out, referring to her or just talking about their wedding day.

On "Getting Married" Nas describes an urban wedding fairytale, tells how he wants the big day to play out and even rattles off some names on their guest list. This song is followed by "No One Else In the Room" featuring Maxwell. The song begins with the sound of utensils being tapped on glasses wedding style and he continues to discuss his perfect relationship with Kelis. It's good to know that he's happy, but I could have used a lot less Kelis on this CD. At the same time, Nas' albums have always been personal and it's good to see him maintain that consistency.

Another very personal song is "Me and You", which is dedicated to his daughter Destiny. It's really sweet and Nas is singing off key the entire song. It samples Marvin Gay's "If This World Were Mine" and it's the basic father/daughter song you get from rappers. He's telling Destiny that he loves her and he'll always be there, et cetera. It's real and it's endearing. He tells her, "Respect your mom, no one will replace her/ She's the one who went through the labor/ but you don't owe her no favors/ but her respect is due."

Nas' father, Olu Dara Jones makes a couple guest appearances on the album. Olu Dara's background vocals add so much to "Street's Disciple". On "Bridging the Gap", Nas' jazz trained father not only sings background vocals, he plays the trumpet. It's definitely not a favorite song of mine, but it's different and different is good in a genre where everyone else is playing follow the leader.

One of the most well intentioned songs on the album is "The Unauthorized Biography of Rakim" where Nas pays homage to the God M.C. Rakim Allah. The song doesn't really work, it doesn't flow well and seems unfinished. I'm almost certain were this not a double CD, the song would have never made the cut. It's definitely one of those, "it's the thought that counts" joints. Most rapper's wouldn't even think to pay homage to Rakim until he was dead. Without Rakim, there possibly would have never been Nas "the rapper revolutionized."

The street anthems are all but gone on this album. The older more mature Nas has better things to talk about than killing and drug dealing, at least in the present tense. Most of the more street oriented songs are told from a past tense angle. The street tales that do appear on this album almost seem like an afterthought. That proves true when you listen to "Thief's Theme" and hear Nas say, "I had to make a song, speakin' on my old life/ For the thieves who come out at night."

If "Illmatic" lead you to believe that young Nasir was a kid in the ghetto trying to find a way out through hip-hop; "Street's Disciple" leads you to believe that he has retired from the ghetto and would like to use his status in hip-hop to get the ghetto to wake up and create new situations for themselves, inspite of this country's inequality. Nas seems way more concerned with educating and uplifting the ghetto with his music, than trying to get the thugs to bob their heads. He's kind of taking a KRS-One approach with "edutainment", but at times Nas sounds way too preachy.

One very weak aspect of this album is the production. Though it has it's bright spots, there's not much in the way of beats that stand out. That's cool though, because Nas has never been known for his choice of beats. His lyrical tenacity outshines the beat almost every time. "Street's Disciple" is not without its flaws, but they are few and far between.
Nas has a point to make and I think he's done a good job of getting it across. The Nas of "Illmatic" is gone. Many of us will miss that Nas, but I love the wiser, more mature Nas that has replaced him. Nas is a grown ass man, he's still here, he's still hood and he's still relevant. This is arguably the best hip-hop album released this year and hopefully Nas' peers will look at "Street's Disciple" as a challenge and step their game up.

back to the ratings..

Track By Track

** Disc 1
-- Degrees --	10	20	30	40	50	60	70	80	90	100
1.  Intro (medley)
1.  Intro
2.  A Message to the Feds
3.  Nazareth Savage
4.  American Way
5.  These Are Our Heroes
6.  Disciple
7.  Sekou Story
8.  Live Now
9.  Rest of My Life
10. Just A Moment
11. Reason
12. You Know My Style
** Disc 2
-- Degrees --	10	20	30	40	50	60	70	80	90	100
1.  Suicide Bounce
2.  Street's Disciple
3.  U.R.B.
4.  Virgo
5.  Remember..(Intro)
6.  Remember The Times
7.  Makings of a Perfect      Bitch
8.  Getting Married
9.  No One Else In The      Room
10. Bridging the Gap
11. War
12. Me And You
13. Thief's Theme

0; $i--) {array_push($rev, $lines[$i]);} // Reverse order and display earliest entry first $lines=$rev; // Display 5 comments while ($i < 6){ list($key)= each ($lines); // split the data lines into a user array - user[0] is the name, user[1] is the date, [2] is the message, [3] is album rating [4 and up] are the individual track ratings $user = explode("#",$lines[$key]); // Check for latest entries and pop off the last item.. corrects bug in diplay programming $lastentry = explode("%",$content); $lastentry = array_pop($lastentry); // get it on the screen already.. :) echo ""; // increment loop variable $i++; } ?>

.