Nas' Nastradamus: A Review

Fresh on the heels of his 1999 disc I Am... (read review), Nas, following DMX who had dropped two albums in one calendar year in 1998, dropped Nastradamus before 1999 was done. As originally he'd planned to drop a double disc titled I Am... before most of the tracks leaked, he collected several of them, such as Project Windows, along with newly recorded material for his anticipated fourth album, which resulted in an uneven record, which fell well short of expectations.

Most problematic here is the disparity of Nas' personas on display here, and therefore the album's ultimate ambitions. tracks like Family and Shoot Em Up recast Nas as an uber gangster - the so-called Nas Escobar persona of 1996's It Was Written (read review), but without that album's lyrical complexity or insight, these tracks come off as generic - far below the Illmatic emcees talents. Club records such as You Owe Me or the grotesque Big Girl likewise are ill-suited to such an elite emcee; however, they could be overlooked if the rest of the album was not problematic.

Next, you have the Nastradamus records, which eschew insight for ego: as with I Am...'s I Want to Talk to You, Nastradamus' New World takes shots at facile targets. The first single and title track is a simple exercise in self-aggrandizement. perhaps suffering from a bit of Tupac Shakur envy (by 1999, new platinum Shakur records were still a regular occurrence), he spends this track, and many others, trying to prove his relevance, which is (1) simply unnecessary as his previous double platinum sales attested, and (2) the mark of an uninspired artist.

Indeed little is inspired here, though a few tracks work. Nas and DJ Premier have never made a weak track, and the atypically uptempo collaboration Come Get Me is a go-for-the-throat battle rap. Project Windows recalls the vivid lyricism of his previous offering's New York State of Mind Pt. II, as the emcee soberly reflects on his childhood (while Ron Isley ironically sings, "Looking out of my project window, oh, I feel uninspired.") Other tracks like God Love Us, Some of Us Have Angels, and Last Words are notable for either striking imagery or striking metaphors, but each is undercut by pedestrian lyrics, beats or both.

Nastradamus is only worth a listen if you are curious as to either the history of his beef with Jay-Z (there are some shots thrown here), or if you are curious as to the nadir of Nas' abilities. An overly melodramatic affair, lacking any clear sense of thematic purpose, Nas' fourth album hasn't gotten any better with age. Download this album's best tracks off iTunes and save yourself some cash.

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