If you’ve been checking for the underground tracks from Nas for a while now, you’ll know a lot of these songs already.

The hood love you but behind your back they pray for the dayĪ bullet hit your heart and ambulances take you away” Trustin your judgment, quick to put it down, they deadly You got a bunch of thugs witchu even now that’s ready You a survivor, knowin all the beef is ill Still standin, still roamin through the streets, that’s real Think of how many dudes died tryin to be down with youĮverybody’s under six feet of ground but you Writing, across the stomach spell GOD son Hate it or love it, like it bump it or dump it

Why it’s mentioned in my rhymes? Fuck it, it’s just an intro Both of those aspects find pen to paper like stylus to vinyl on the song “Purple”: At his best Nas is not just a great flowing rapper with smooth vocal tones, he’s also a gifted and occasionally controversial lyricist. It’s hard to even fathom why these previously recorded songs weren’t officially released before now. The 12 tracks (11 and one bonus) that make up this time though are among the best work Nas’ has done. In fact due to a lack of fraudulent material, this album actually clocks in at a relatively short 43 minutes. “No cameos, no hype, no bullshit.” That’s the slogan for Nas’ new LP “The Lost Tapes,” an album which compiles a lot of classics with almost no filler. Now imagine that it has no DJ Clue shoutouts, no skits, no freestyle filler from twenty herb thugs you never heard of. Imagine if a street vendor offered you a tape of all the best Nas joints from bootleg tapes (often floating the net as MP3’s) and New York mixtapes (like “No Idea’s Original”).

Nas the lost tapes ii songs