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Editorial Reviews

When Nas first appeared on 1994's groundbreaking ILLMATIC, his post-Rakim MC skills and street-level realism helped usher in a fresh "New York state of rhyme" that set the stage for the ascendance of future "street" stars, from Jay-Z to Mobb Deep. Five years later, he's one of the few rappers who can sip Cristal with Puff Daddy while staying credible in the Queensbridge Projects that bore him. On his second album of 1999, Nas hooks up with a diverse list of artists and producers -- Mobb Deep, Ginuwine, Timbaland, DMX and Tricky producer Dame Grease, DJ Premier, Track Masters -- and continues his mission of bridging his thug-playa persona and QB roots. Quality cuts include: "Life We Chose," which sets a high roller-warrior boast to some string-soaked '70s blaxploitation soul, and "Come Get Me," a gunslinger dare that gets its ammo from Primo's D&D Studios sound. Throughout NASTRADAMUS, bullets fly and bodies pile up on tracks that unfold like hip-hop mob vignettes. (The chorus to the haunting "Shoot 'Em Up," goes, simply enough,"kill, kill, kill/ murder, murder, murder.") But Nas is more powerful at telling stories than felling foes, and his best tracks always filter his tales through poignant perspectives. So the toughest thing here is also the sweetest: "Project Windows" sees Ronnie Isley plaintively riffing on Aretha Franklin ("looking out of my project window/makes me feel so uninspired") as a scarred, sentimental Nas looks back on growing up too quickly in the Bridge. But if all these hard truths can get a little hard to handle, Nas's hookup with Timbaland and Ginuwine, "You Owe Me," is a bumpin' club nugget that'll satisfy thugs and shorties alike. NASTRADAMUS proves that for all the gun-talk survivalist dreams of a thug poet, nothing riles the masses like a party thump tempered with a lil' ghetto realism. Jon Dolan, Barnes & Noble

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