Of all the things that separate Nas from pretty much every other rapper around, the most important one isn’t his great flow or even his legendary rhymes. It’s his sense of purpose.
Nas isn’t a firestarter, despite the recent dust-up over the title of his new album - now called “Untitled” (Def Jam) instead of the unprintable racial epithet he wanted - or the way he tackles the weighty topics of race and class. He doesn’t say outrageous things because he feels like it, the way 50 Cent and so many others do. He says them because he’s outraged. (“Only Foxx that I love was the Redd one/Only black man that Fox loves is in jail or a dead one,” he raps in “Sly Fox,” his seething attack on the Fox Network.)
When Nas boasts, as he does in the new single “Hero,” it’s mainly to give more weight to his opinions. “Try telling Bob Dylan, Bruce, or Billy Joel, they can’t sing what’s in their soul,” he argues, claiming rappers don’t get the same artistic freedoms as their rock counterparts.
As he was on the underappreciated “Hip-Hop Is Dead,” Nas is just as meticulous in lining up collaborators and beats for “Untitled” as he is with his rhymes. The Last Poets provide gravitas. Chris Brown and Keri Hilson provide hitmaking potential.
Throw in Nas’ considerable firepower and it all adds up to a classic album that will be dissected for years, with or without a title.
