Got Beats?

My man Lex Luthor put me on to this article about the “Nas Syndrome,” which generally refers to the not-so-unique trend of skillful MCs choosing wack beats, using Nasir’s latest, “Untitled,” as an example.  It’s pretty on point, despite Sean Blaze’s assertion that Stillmatic and God’s Son are routinely overlooked.  Sean’s right— to a degree.  Stillmatic is to Nas what The Black Album is to Jay: the overture to their reinvention that simultaneously proved that they both still had “it” and that they had both been slipping in years prior.  As for God’s Son, the beats were predominantly wack, my friend.

Then, I saw this advertisement on Grand Good just now, and it made me wonder What if Nas had taste in beats like ‘Mega? I know, I know.  Too good to be true…

The Versatile, Honey-Stickin Wild, Golden Child

Seems Nas is just steady pumping out tracks on a song-by-song basis like it was ’92 or something.  First, there was the that Swizz Beatz joint “Be Worried” and now, “Film,” produced by some beat contest winner C-Sick (apparently, some skinny, 18 year-old white kid).  Nas comes real heavy-like with an emphasis on cinematic storytelling and vivid imagery.

The beat fits Nas really well and goes along with the melodic, mafioso mode of It Was Written… [EDIT: Hmmm...Maybe more like The Lost Tapes now that I think about it]  But what struck me most upon listening to this song earlier today was how clownish it is that he’s the most poetic emcee in Hip-Hop but can’t string a sentence together in prose.  He was on the Colbert Report a while back talking about his street single “Sly Fox,” and he couldn’t convincingly articulate his qualms with FOX news despite having written a four-and-a-half minute song on the topic.  Interviews with Nas should henceforth be conducted in the format of a freestyle battle with 30 seconds each for the question and response.  The Bill O’Reillys of the world will be as out of their element as Nas is in their sterile “news”-talk show setting.

Nas – “Film”