God's Son

by

Nas

Edit

With 3 CDs released in a little over a year, Nasir Jones has been very busy. Although, the critically acclaimed "Lost Tapes" were pretty much B Sides from "I Am" and "Stillmatic". After battling Jay Z and reaffirming his spot in the game with "Stillmatic", Nas seems like he is on a different mission this time around. After dealing with the death of his mom, Nas wants to take the mature approach this time around. This is understandable although many artists deal with personal loss in different ways. The CD starts out with "Get Down" and gets things off to a good start as Nas is basically freestyling over old James Brown beats. Eminem then shows up to produce "The Cross" and if you didn't hear Nas' voice, you would be waiting for Eminem or someone from D12 stepping up to rhyme. On Track 3 and 4, you have the best 2 songs on the CD in my opinion. The first single and video from "God's Son", "Made U Look", took a little while to grow on me because of the beat by Salaam Remi. While Nas is always on point with his lyrics, I was not used to hearing him rap to old school hip hop beats with the exception of some of his freestyles on mixed CDs. On "Last Real N**** Alive", Nas tells the truth about his dealings with The Notorious BIG, Raekwon, Steve Stoute and the Jiggaman himself. "Zone Out" includes a "sick" beat by Salaam Remmi and the Braveharts and Nas sound like they transformed back to "Beat Street" and "Krush Groove" for a minute as they spit 80s type rhymes. On "Hey Nas", Nas employs Claudette Ortiz from City High and his boo, Kelis, for Salaam Remi's Trackmasters' beat. I think they were in the studio somewhere when this song was produced. However, Nas does a good job in my opinion, of describing the type of female that he is looking for. On The Alchemist' produced "Book Of Rhymes", Nas combines old rhymes that we has written or employs that concept to have a combination of different rhymes that make sense. This just proves how innovative Nas is. From there with the Alicia Keys' produced "Warrior Song", "Thugz Mansion" (NY) with a verse from 2 Pac, "Dance" and "Heaven", Nas takes his personal feelings and how he dealt with his mother's death and takes you inside of his mind for a minute. While all 4 of these tracks may not be the strongest cuts on "God's Son", the more you listen to them the more that you will start to like these songs. There aren't too many things that are wrong with "God's Son". The next single, "I Can" borrows too much from Slick Rick in my opinion. It sounds like a 2003 "Hey Young World" and to make it worse Nas even sounds like MC Ricky D. "Revolutionary Warfare" serves a good purpose but the song could have done better without Lake rapping on the song. Missing from "God's Son" also are L.E.S., DJ Premier and AZ, which are usually essential parts of a Nas CD. Anyone who heard the AZ and Nas song "The Essence" will understand what I mean. Overall, "God's Son" is a very mature presentation from Nas. I admire Nas for not being afraid to try something different. There is nothing wrong with trying a new concept when you have accomplished what Nasir Jones has accomplished. This CD also includes a bonus disc with 3 songs, the best of them being track 3, "The God" and track 1, "Thugz Mirror (Freestyle). If you are a real Nas fan then you can't afford to pass this CD up. Although there will never be another "Illmatic", "The Lost Tapes", "Stillmatic" and "God's Son" are right up there as Nas' best CDs.

James' Top 5

1) Made U Look

2) Last Real N**** Alive

3) Get Down

4) Thugz Mansion (NY) w/2 Pac & J Phoenix

5) Warrior Song w/Alicia Keys