The Rise and Fall of Nasir Jones in hip hop parallels that of many of the gangstas in which he attempts to portray when he is in his Nas Escobar persona. Before being known as Nas Escobar, he was simply known as Nasty Nas. He was a hungry emcee during his early days in hip hop, which he capped off with 1994's untimely classic Illmatic. At times, calling this classic is an understatement. Slowly, Nas began to change. He decided to adopt a new, mafiosio-style of street poetry, which came into fruition when he introduced his new gangsta Nas Escobar character on It was Written. The album, though pretty good, lacked the magic of his debut. On I am, Nas completely adopted the Escobar form, turning gangsta and starting to put a bunch of commercial elements and an overall commercial sound... rapping about money, women, and jewelry. However, instead of pleasing his friends, Nas goes and sinks even deeper into the whole and completely sells out. The same year, 1999, Nas releases Nastradamus, and gives us, quite possibly, the worst album from a formerly great artist ever.


Track List & Rating

1. The Prediction f/ Jessica Care Moore (NOT RATED)
2. Life We Chose (***)
3. Nastradamus (*)
4. Some Of Us Have Angels (**)
5. Project Windows f/ Ron Isley (****)
6. Come Get Me (**)
7. Shoot ‘Em Up (*)
8. Last Words f/ Millenium Thug (**)
9. Family f/ Mobb Deep (****)
10. God Love Us (***)
11. Quiet N*ggas f/ Bravehearts (*)
12. Big Girl (*)
13. New World (*)
14. You Owe Me f/ Ginuwine (*)
15. The Outcome f/ Jessica Care Moore (NOT RATED)


Nastradamus begins with an interesting intro by Jessica Care Moore called "The Prediction", who rhymes over a very dark and banging beat. She spits some pretty meaningful rhymes which are sort of like a psychic reading of the future, similar to what Nas was hoping to accomplish on this album taking in his new form as Nastradamus. Her intro is much different than any intro to a previous Nas album, but overall its really not bad at all. Ive decided not to rate it due to the fact that its merely an intro and that Nas doesn't rap on it at all. But if i did have to give it a rating, id give it a 3 1/2 Star rating, same with the outro.

The first real track "Life We Chose" showcases Nas in his Escobar persona, as much as he tries not to sound like it, the commercialism creeps back in over and over again. He attempts to sound prophetic at times, but his flow is extremely off-point and uninspired. Nas gives us hints of some intelligent narratives, but his flow is mono-syllabalistic and his wordplay and metaphors are virtually non-existant. As for the production side of the track, its somewhat listenable, but nothing groundbreaking or unique like the sounds we heard on the great Illmatic. The subject matter isn't exactly bad, but the way that Nas decides to execute it on this particular track is incredibly bad.

Moving on we get to the first single "Nastradamus". Im pretty sure youve heard this title track before, specially if you listened to hip hop in 1999, but nowadays in 2003, this track is virtually unheard on radio stations. This track fully shows the commercialism of Nas. The production is extremely commercialized, with jiggy synthesizers, a thumping drum loop and bassline. Nas' lyricism is as low as it can possibly get on this track. He spits mono-syllabalistic and uninspired, with an extreme lack of clever punchlines and intelligent or clever metaphors and similes. His subject matter is among the worst ever, with an extremely egotistical barrage of materialistic crap rapping about jewelry, drugs, cars, women, and guns. He basically takes a thuggish motto, and his rhymes are extremely horrible, along with his annoying sing-song chorus. Terrible....

On "Some of Us Have Angels" raps about street violence, but takes a greedy thuggish rhyme. He rhymes a mix of materialistic commercialism and some mafiosio lyrics. Admittedly, he has a few interesting narratives and intelligent lines, but it is overtaken by his gangsta rhymes.His chorus is another of the sing-song type, and its horribly uninspired. The production is listenable, but not good whatsoever. Featuring a synthesized drum loop and snare mix, its not completely bad, but not good either.

The one above average track on Nastradamus is the Ron Isley featuring "Project Windows". The sad thing is, this track wasn't even supposed to be on this album, and was supposed to be on I am.... The Autobiography before it was leaked. Nas gives us a tight multi-syllable flow, intelligent narratives and street poetry galore, reminiscent of his early 1994-1996 era. Nas gets descriptive, telling us about the negativity that he's seen staring out of his project window, showing us how retrospective Nas can be. His rhymes are complex and can only complement the subject matter. The piano loop is beautiful production for this track, but nothing extremely good, and the Ron Isley chorus is good, but not great, admittedly, but this is by no means, a good enough reason to buy this. I reccomend downloading this song, and thats it.

Black hoods, cops 'n projects
sewers flooded with foul blockage
The gutter's wild and every child watches
Changin top locks with ripped off hinges
doors kicked off, drunks stag off smirnoff, wipe your beard off
Crippled dope fiends in wheelchairs stare
vision blurry, cus buried deep in they mind are hidden stories
Bet he's a mirror image of that 70's era

DJ Premier gives us a welcoming surprise on "Come Get Me". Primo laces the track with one of his traditionally classic beats, loaded with scratching, pianos, and synthesizers. Primo proves why he is the best producer. Unfortunately, the lyricism of Nas kills the track's credibility. Nas raps gangsta lyricism about war and drugs, giving himself the image of a kingpin. He mentions jewels and all of the sort, boring lyrics. The Primo beat is the only reason the track got so many points, otherwise, this track is loaded with nonsense and just plain sucks.

Nas is gives us one of his worse ideas ever with "Shoot Em Up". He sampled the melody from Partridge in a Pear Tree, as he countsdown numerous violent acts. Nas' attempt at being creative sounds like complete nonsense and is ridiculous. The chorus is juvenile and so stupid, i laugh at it. The lyricism is as bad as its ever been, and the production is as non-fitting as it is annoying. Featuring a christmas sounding xylophone with a stupid bass and drum accompaniment, its as annoying as the lyrics. Sorry Nas, but Christmas Carols and Hip Hop are two separate styles that should never be mixed... with the exeption of the RUN-DMC hit "Christmas in Hollice", but thats another story. But as for this track... terrible.. terrible....

"Last Words" and "Family" are only slight improvements. Millenium Thug joins Nas on the first of the two tracks, spitting solid, yet below average lyricism over some annoying production. The vocal samples mixed with the piano sounds awful. The track alone has a tiny bit of highlights, and his mafiosio lyricism is at times, clever and intelligent, but only parts of it are good, and Nas can't seem to be consistently good. On the second of the two tracks, "Family", Nas is joined by fellow Queens rappers Mobb Deep. On here, Nas and the Mobb spit above average lyricism with some unique subject matter which is about loyalty on the streets, which sounds good, but belongs on a Mobb Deep record, not on a Nas record. However, the track is nowhere near as bad as some of the other sh*t on this album, and Prodigy drops the best verse on this album. Its amazing that the best verse on this whole album is not even from the star, which is saddening to me. This track is worth downloading i think, if youve got some spare time.

Nas attempts to return to being introspective on "God Love Us" and "New World". On the first of the two, Nas raps introspectively about keeping his religion, even through the bad times. He tries to explain to everybody that God loves everybody, even criminals, which is a positive message to those innocent criminals, but the real bad ones may mis-interpret. God does indeed love everybody on Earth, but Nas kind of takes it too far, and at times tries to make an excuse for criminals, which is kind of ridiculous. However, he spits intelligently, yet very subpar. The chorus is also garbage. On the latter, Nas raps introspectively about his views on a new world, which is nowhere near as good as it sounds. Nas is basically average on this song, spitting some very good intelligence, along with materialistic crap. His flow suffers a whole lot on this track, but he delivers relatively good. Oh yeah, the instrumental sucks due to the fact that it tries too hard to be banging, but fails because it doesn't match the lyrics and the overall feel of the track.

"Quiet N*ggas" and "Big Girl" are EXTREMELY skippable, as they are both unlistenable trash. The first of the two features the highly untalented kliq known as the Bravehearts, which couldn't rap if their life depended on it. Their lyricism is horribly bad, sounding like every single rapper on television right now. Absolutely no talent is the best way to describe The Bravehearts. Even Nas sounds subpar with these guys. The latter track gets even worse. Nas raps for the first time in his career, in a triple-cadence style, which is so unique that its worth listening to once just to hear Nas speed up his rap. The instrumental is extremely fast, along with the lyricism, but not horribly unlistenable. Then again, the track is unlistenable, due to its horrible lyrics and subject matter. Nas raps about his girlfriend turning mature. There is almost no intelligence to be found whatsoever on this track, and the chorus is sing-song, meaning this track is complete trash.

Actually, complete trash would be the final track on the album, the second single "You Owe Me". Ginuwine, the extremely commercial and R. Kelly-copying R&B singer pops up here. This is, by far, the WORST song in Nas' career, hands down. Timbaland gives us a horrible instrumental with mysogonystic lyrics. Nas raps mono-syllabalistic, using a terrible choice of words, limited vocabulary, terrible flow, and tops it off with an annoying chorus. Ginuwine does his part on the chorus, but gets extremely annoying when he repeats Owe.. owe... owe... which sounds horrible. The subject matter is the worst part. Nas raps about inticing women with his money, cars, and namely, his ice. This is the song that basically ended all of Nas' credibility as a rapper, causing him to be picked on by a plethora of artists, including Jay-Z with the infamous line from Blueprint 2: Is it Black Girl Lost, or Shorty Owe you for Ice?. Nas claims that if he buys sh*t for girls, they owe him sex, which will definetely p*ss off a LOT of girls, except of course, the gold-diggers and wh*res of america, which is where this song is aimed. The only reason it was barely successful is because of the "catchy" chorus and Timbaland beat. In conclusion... dont you dare in you're life listen to this song... IT NEEDS TO BE BURIED.

Play to win, girls in the club moving
I get ‘em real hot, my songs seduce 'em
I flow, I'm so mysterious
Nas, and Nasty's the alias
Everything platinum I glow
Cadillac trucks pulling up to the do'
On top out the car, lounge at the bar
We spent a thou', we wild, look at how rowdy we are
Feel like a million dollars, feel me holla
To the max with the Benz and chrome wheeled Impalas
Thugs and renta's, to the playas and ballers

The huge pile of sh*t that i call Nastradamus ends with another decent poem, this time having Jessica Care Moore rap about the aftermath, sort of like an outro.

Nastradamus is in one word... terrible. Nearly the entire album is void of any intelligence or clever lyricism, not even braggadiocio, just materialistic brag rap, commercialized beats and lyrics, a horrible attempt at a flow, and all of this from a man who is considered a legend. Listening to this made me wonder if Nasty Nas was kidnapped by aliens and cloned, and that this isn't the real Nas, because it CANNOT be the same man who brought us Illmatic, it simply CANNOT coincide together. This is an extreme dissapointment in Nas' career as it was seemingly over, until he made his triumphant return with Stillmatic, which was incredible. I was tempted to give this album 2 stars, which is what it deserves, but ive decided to bury it with a 1 star rating so that it never sees the light of day and Nas never makes the same mistake ever again in his career. I would've left it at 2, but this is a legend, selling out, so i had to bury it. Do yourself a favor... if you ever contemplate buying this album, make sure you either cut your ears off, or forget the English Language, because its pure torture.

2 Stars... rounded down to 1 Star.. YES IT IS THAT BAD!!!

Great Music to Play While: Contemplating Suicide


Recommended: No