Comeback singles you’ve been waiting for, part 2…
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[7.00]
Anthony Easton: John Jerehmiah Sullivan’s essay “The Last Wailer,” anthologized in his collection Pulphead, has some of the most beautiful descriptive writing of urban Jamaica and some, perhaps accidentally, smart things about capital. I don’t think that New York has any ghetto any more, and I don’t think that it is hard, but the weird Islamic component of this song, mirrored in a Rasta dub toasting, and branched onto a pure hustle capital, says so much about where the Afrocentric Carribean fits into New York City right now. It’s also really well written. Lines like: “Habitual happiness at me you wouldn’t look backwards/You would have sex on Condominium Roof Decks” are so tight, all those spitting hard k sounds. (obligatory preference for the lack of homophobic and misogynist references – three points off for that)
[6]
Alfred Soto: History is made by fight. Here’s Nas shoehorning his way into an importance that few would deny him with mafia metaphors that few would think are fresh.
[6]
Brad Shoup: I missed the way Nas says “lavish”. Illmatic‘s old enough to vote, but you wouldn’t know it from the hunger here. He totally owns Salaam Remi and Heavy D’s dancehall boom-bap, skating on that panning squeal. I expect the new album (like most, to be fair) to carry that late-career bloat, but this shit’s so good I’m willing to hold out hope for something lean. Also: thanks for clarifying that Super Cat isn’t repping Mastodon.
[9]
Jonathan Bogart: The only excuse for luxury rap is if you can make it thrilling. Nas can.
[9]
Jonathan Bradley: The effort involved in hoisting these parts into a smoldering street banger is too evident and Nas’s flow is mixtape freestyle–level, not album teaser–quality. (Compare to the sublime late-career highlight “Queens Get the Money.”) Even the late-song switch-up sounds forced. And yet: that beat is nagging and seductive and Nas rides it well.
[6]
Jamieson Cox: I’m not particularly enamoured with the beat that forms the backbone of “The Don” – I tend to gravitate to either hyper-minimalism or high-energy kinetics, and this song is caught somewhere in the middle – but two decades into his career, Nas still possesses enough charisma and charm to keep my attention as long as he’s on the mic.
[6]