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Nas Gets ‘Nasty’ On New Single

There’s no R&B chord, A-list feature or catchy chorus. On “Nasty,” the first single from Nas’ 10th solo album, The Good Life, the rapper takes things back to hip-hop basics: hard rhymes over an infectious loop.

The song, which leaked online Monday night, is reminiscent of New York’s 1980s infamous park jams and starts out with a DJ asking the rapper’s native Queensbridge housing projects, “Are y’all ready to see Nasty Nas?” The question is, of course, rhetorical.

After Nasir pushed rap’s envelope in 2008 on his politically charged Untitled album (originally titled N—er), fans have clamored for new solo material. Thankfully, “Nasty” lives up to its name, as the track’s opening bars paint a picture of New York’s pre-gentrified crack era: “Late-night candlelight fiend with diesel in his needle/ Queensbridge leader, no equal.” Nas continues to toss numerous nods to the ’80s and ’90s on the Salaam Remi-produced track. There’s a shout to Queens street legend Thomas “Tony Montana” Mickens, the now-closed Tunnel nightclub and the late Notorious B.I.G.

Still, “Nasty” isn’t just a trip down memory lane. In fact, Nas remains with his feet firmly planted in 2011 as he reflects on his growth from a wide-eyed boy looking out of his project window to rap’s upper echelon, while still leaving room to grow.”We ain’t going backwards, we’re staying forward though,” Nas said in a June interview with DJ Envy on MTV2’s Sucker Free.


With the song’s lyrics, he stays true to that notion. “Silent rage, pristine in my vintage shades/ I’m not in the winters of my life or the beginning stage,” Nas spits before revealing his lustful interest in actress Antonique Smith, who played Faith Evans in the 2009 Biggie biopic “Notorious.”

Nas continues to fire off quotables in rapid succession. “I’m so high, I never land like Mike Jackson’s crib” and “Your flow’s cheap as limousine liquor” are just a few examples of Nas’ spirited wordplay.

If the new single is any indication of what fans can expect from the new Nas album, then for hip-hop fans, life is good.

What do you think of Nas’ latest single? Share your reviews in the comments!

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2 Comments on this Post

  1. I just started my cehnnal too and have the same questions but from looking at your cehnnal, there are a few things you can do to improve the amount of viewers, first, try to fix some of your titles (one said Sugar We’re Going Down .wav or something like that it looks like you never changed the title from the file name, so change the title to include Fall out Boy and perhaps Cover or Acoustic Cover), you should also add more tags add things like singing, acoustic, instrumental, perhaps the name of other hit songs from the same band, the band’s name, etc.It’s hard to get views of covers of old songs (unless you already have a fanbase /subscribers), so try to do more new songs, especially ones that only have a few covers already out (this way you are competing against less amount of vids already out there).That’s all I can think of for now it’s a good idea to also do video responses to videos (like covers or the original music video of a song you covered) be sure that your video response is in response to a video that is getting a lot of attention/views (you do this by clicking on the comment box of someone’s video, then to the right a link will show up to create video response , then you select your video) that’s an excellent way to get more viewers if you respond to the right video (i.e. one that gets a lot of new/recent views). Be sure to subscribe to cehnnals similar to yours and comment on their videos and cehnnal page, depending on what your comment is, this may encourage others to click on your name.Hope that helps! Good luck. It take time to promote your video (for free), so be patient and keep uploading vids (people tend to subscribe to those who have a constant inflow of new vids).

  2. I believe he may have hepled straighten Hip-Hop up alot but save it not entirely. He did bring artistic creativity to the watered down eras in Hip-Hop called the Bling-Bling and currently Hip-Pop. Sad, though not a lot of rappers believe they can cash in on his approach to music which makes him stand out as an artist by definition. Hip-Hop needs more than Kanye and Nas but I’m thankful they’re making a stand. Hip-Hop to the fullest one.

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