producer: dj premier, pretty boy, d. moet, nashiem myrick, l.e.s., carlos broady, poke and tone, grease, timbaland, alvin west

guests: puff daddy, scarface, aaliyah, dmx

Now that so many people hate on Nas, just for the sake of it, it’s time to give him some love. But not too much either, just as much as he deserves. So follow my path while I lead you through this third effort of Mr Nasir Jones.

Nasir is. I am. And what he is, he is his music, his art. And what is part of his music, we can listen to on the intro, where he guides us trough "Live At The BBQ" and some of the best know tracks of "Illmatic" and "It Was Written". And Nas updates himself, or his art, when he redoes "NY State Of Mind", the untimely classic of his first album, that had Nas rhyme: "I never sleep, cause sleep is the cousin of death". This might be interesting for the people that missed "Illmatic", but for the old cats, this updates version only has limited excitement quality.

For them, it gets more interesting with the intriguingly titled "Hate Me Now", featuring the most hated Puffy himself on the chorus. It was only a question of time until "O Fortuna" from the Carl Orff opera "Carmina Burana" would find it’s way as a sample on a hip hop record. So this selection can not be considered a surprise, while Nas does a good, and animated job of telling all the naw-sayers, to basically shut the fuck up. Well, at the same time he falls prey to do exactly what he’s accused of: not being the street prophet no more. The first verse is pretty ignorant, while the second and third verse set some things straight, especially when Nas rhymes "Niggas fear what they don’t understand / hate what they can’t conquer / guess it’s just inferior man / became a monster".

Next up is a Timbaland produced track, that’s pretty basic, with tame drums and tame piano. Nothing as chopped up as we usually get from the man from VA. More interesting is the dramatic feel to the L.E.S. produced "Favor For A Favor" featuring Scarface. And the album remains on this emotional, soft tip for much of the album, all through songs like "We Will Survive", "Ghetto Prisoners", "You Won’t See Me Tonight", "Life Is What You Make It", "K-I-SS-I-N-G", "Money Is My Bitch" and "Undying Love". Nothing one could consider innovative, but just what one has to consider ‘mainstream’. Things get animated again with "I Want To Talk To", "Dr Knockboot" and "Nas Is Like". And that’s the biggest mistake about this album, that the beats are so slow and so unspectacular. This is easy accessible pop hip hop, that will not hurt anybody listening to it. But it’s defenitely not going to please the backpackers.

Now lyrically there are still only few that can mess with Nas. May it be on his dedication to Biggie and Tupac, or the very political and conscious "I Want To Talk To", where Nas rhymes "I’m just a Black man, why ya’ll make it so hard / damn, a nigga gotta create his own job / Mr. Mayor, imagine this was your backyard / Mr. Governor, imagine it’s your kids that starve, imagine your kids gotta slang crack to survive / swing a mack to be live". Also "Ghetto Prisoners" shines because of a strong message, while much of the rest, dangles somewhere between materialistic, skirt hunting, well concepted but badly executed. Nevertheless, the lyrics are certainly the winners on this album.

Worst track has to be "Big Things", where Nas tries to do that Southern flow over a Alvin West beat, that does nothing to impress. Strongest track still is the first single "Nas Is Like" with Esco not only being tight with his rhymes, but with DJ Premier doing what he can do best: putting out those unbeatable NYC bangers. And judging from that track, and from the tightness of the lyrics Nas has throughout the album, this could have been a classic. But it’s only mediocre.