I'll check it out. Thanks.

Braggadocio has it's place in Hip Hop, sini. Always has, always wil. I know some don't dig it, but it's not always a bad thing if used correctly.

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This is my signature...

oh yeah, i never meant to convey otherwise. though i can see where it might seem like there's a disconnect cuz i can brazenly dismiss 95% of contemporary rap insomuchas i honestly don't care that you drove a luxury car to the club where you're VIP and you evidently are so keen on letting me know that you get so many women i'm starting to question your sexuality, still, the etymology of rapping comes from (balck) people in the 60s/70s having their verbal repetoire aka their "game" or their "rap" when they were attempting to attract the wimmenfolk or come off as cool/proper to their contemporaries.

it's just that things hit a critical mass in the early 90s when gangsta rap rose up, cuz in the 80s just the fact that you could rap was enough to brag about, whereas with gangsta rap it seemed to become about your life experience in "the game" or "the rat race" and as such materialism took off, carried by guys with legitimate skill like jay-z, but by the time the 2000s and now the 10s took off.... shit, when people talk about satanists/"illuminati" in the music industry, let's just say it wouldn't surprise me if there was a giant spell cast on society in order to get people to listen to lil wayne and drake en masse. the latter still pisses me the fuck off when he claims greatest ever in a fucking sprite commercial biting a song gimmick from aceyalone (the actual greatest ever, altho as i'm about to get into, he did never come as "hard" (not in a ruffian/toughness sense) as nas did on illmatic) i mean seriously wtf humanity? there's a reason biggie and tupac were so exalted: they could rap. the materialism was there, but the fact that they were experts at rapping is what sold the album, not the materialism. now it's the other way around.

i'm on halftime now.... and yeah it turns out i forgot the track listing goes new york state of mind life's a bitch the world is yours and then halftime. the word that keeps popping to mind is "urgency" in that nas rapped with almost a dire sense of urgency to get the fuck out of his situation make some real money and live a life of sanity. new york state of mind is menacing with the beat 1-2 slapping on top of that bassline just driving it in over and over while he's going over the reality that he grew up with. then you turn around and have life's a bitch and he even gives someone else the first verse, dude prolly kicks the verse of his life.... but yeah, holy shit nas can rap. then i really forgot the world is yours is on there, cuz that's a legitimately classic pete rock beat and combine that with the fact that nas was at the top of his game as a pure rapper back then and yeah.... then yeah.

and whatever this song is after halftime, it's another one of those legendary beats i recognize without knowing what it is. i'm pretty sure this LP gives us the line "i used to ride the A with the R in my walkman" and yeah.... like i've been saying, you can just feel that urgency in nas to get the fuck out of his life make some $$$ and get the fuck away from all the shit that, ironically, enabled him to make all of the $$$ he made. there's a good # of people who can rap but they never figured out the lottery ticket (which i was reminded costs as much as a bottle of something, so where should nas have spent his $$?) and are caught in the underground fiefdom circlejerk of whatever city/region they're in. but then again, if they could rap as well as nas did they'd pretty much be able to step back and kick some more str8forward stuff genetically engineered to sell to average people, cuz no matter what you'll never be able to take the fact that nas made illmatic away from him.

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Yeah Lost Tapes is good

There not much Nas I don't like. He's got a high floor. Hi worst stuff is B+