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Music Reviews
Nas: It Was Written
Columbia

 
  File Under: Emerging street poets
"The Message" (331K WAV)
RealAudio: 28.8 or 14.4 | About RealAudio
"Watch Dem Niggas" (326K WAV)
RealAudio: 28.8 or 14.4 | About RealAudio

As evidenced by last year's fine Ill-Matic, and followed up nicely on the new It Was Written, Nas has an extraordinary knack for street-literate verse and tasteful pop instrumentation. His perspective on the flagging rap genre is risky, compelling, and, most importantly, musical--for evidence, just check out "The Message," with its delicately plucked acoustic guitar and aggressive bass, or the harpsichord-backed "Affirmative Action." But though he approaches his instrumentation with finesse, Nas, like his counterparts Dre , Dogg , and Coolio, comes at his subjects with a lyrical toughness. "The snakes put a smile on their face/ Hoping and praying I'm stuck/ Scoping, they lay in the cut" he sings 71 on "Watch Dem Niggas," a paranoid rant about inner-city life. Nas has a dark vision (he certainly earns the album's parental advisory for explicit lyrics), but there is a beauty and groove in the bleakness. In the constantly mutating realm of rap, Nas has separated himself from the pack with the commanding dexterity of a true urban poet. --Bob Gulla


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