Snap Judgement: Nas – Last Real Nigga Alive Pt.2

Nas drops in for a verse on Green Lantern’s new tape. Does he phone it in or do we get some Nasty Nas shit?

A pleasantly meandering trumpet over a sparse, hard knocking drum pattern is all Nas needs to spit some hot bars. He sets the scene by fondly reminiscing on his ‘pissy stairways days’ and his nostalgia actually sounds believable because he immediately follows it with the mention that he doesn’t miss that when stores are shut down for his personal shopping spree. This duality is what ‘keeping it real’ means, not projecting an image that’s expected of you but speaking from the heart, even when those feelings might be conflicted. Namedropping everyone from Obama to Gotti to Bill Clinton to Lindsey Lohan he spins a tale on crooked role model emulation and cocaine’s supply chain in only a few lines. This is the kind of verse Jayceon Taylor dreams of writing.

Rough beat and invigorated Nas = Win on all angles. My only beef with this track is that it’s over in little more than a minute.

4/5

J.Monkey

1982 was when Jaap van der Doelen aka J.Monkey shot his way out his mom dukes. A mere two years later he was already battling Big Brother and The Illuminati. Whenever he has time to spare from those efforts he writes (about music, mostly), hosts a radio show and designs graphics for a living. He lives in The Netherlands where he continues to be winning.

Website - Twitter - Facebook - More Posts