Nas - Untitled
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Nas - Untitled (Monday July 28, 2008 11:29 AM ) Released on 14/07/08 Label: Def Jam This much we know already: Nasir Jones's ninth full-length arrives on a raft of controversy, its title, N*gger, expunged after US retail chains refused to stock it. Hip Hop Is Dead, its predecessor, crystallised the debates raging around rap's relevance and the music's direction; misinterpreted as a death knell, it helped revivify the music by pointing out how rap had lost its way.This record is Hip Hop Is Dead's follow-up in every sense, as Nas homes in on questions of race and language that were intrinsic parts of the previous album's multi-layered argument. But it's also a ferociously focused and provocative piece of analysis of relations between races and classes, delivered in a year of election which promises a generation-defining sea-change in the way these relationships play out. A critique and an alarm call, its intent, again, is to influence the debates it encapsulates.On the most cogent and consistent album-length polemic since Public Enemy released Fear Of A Black Planet in 1990, Nas examines his topic from every relevant angle. Even supposedly lighter moments, such as the Mark Ronson-produced Fried Chicken, are waist-deep in the muddy waters he's chosen to wade into. The tirade against biased news reporting, Sly Fox, is an immediate high, but this vitally important and uniformly excellent record is filled with tracks that gradually yield their erudition and wit to careful attention.Brilliantly sequenced, the album reaches a euphoric climax with the Yes, we can change the world hook of Black President, a close cousin of Lupe Fiasco's Superstar. Yet even here, Nas still sticks to popping the right questions - I think Obama provides hope, and challenges minds / Of all races and colours to erase the hate, he raps, before asking, When he wins, will he really care still? If The Audacity Of Hope is anything more than a marketing slogan, you'll find its deepest and clearest exposition in these verses.But it is Hero, the first single, that gives the album its pulse. Over a Polow Da Don beat that's the aural equivalent of sunlight painfully dazzling as it shimmers on rippling water, Nas abandons his customary laid-back flow to almost shout about responsibility and purpose, before addressing his own immediate present: So untitled it is, I never changed nothin' / But, people, remember this: If Nas can't say it, think about these talented kids with new ideas being told what they can and can't spit / I can't sit and watch it, so,...
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