Untitled.
| Nas
Untitled.
The untitled ninth studio album by American rapper Nas, commonly referred to eponymously as Nas, was released on July 15, 2008 by The Jones Experience and Def Jam Recordings. Its original title Nigger was changed due to controversy surrounding the racial epithet. The album is distinguished for its political content, diverse sources of production, and provocative subject matter. The album features guest appearances from Chris Brown, Keri Hilson, Busta Rhymes, and The Game, among others. -Wikipedia
Critic Reviews
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The Guardian
As ever, this most eloquent of rappers is stronger on zingers than philosophical coherence. But his dismal taste in beats strands his poetry in a sea of mediocrity.
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Hiphop DX
With Untitled it appears that Nas truly understands and embraces that you cannot please everyone. Because of that, he has rid himself of the handcuffs that fans and critics have bound him with and expresses true creative freedom. As long as he realizes that the people believe in him and will follow him just because he is Nas, he can continue to create ambitious projects such as this.
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COS
Untitled is a disappointingly average album. There are not a lot of blatantly negative things to say about this album, but it has very few highlights. Even after several listens there are not many moments that stand out in my mind.
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Rolling Stone
Still, on Untitled, Nas has found subject matter worthy of his grandiosity and his grumpiness. And the album holds a surprise: a song about a savior who isn’t Nas.
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Pitchfork
Nas has produced an excellent 21st-century record that balances political powderkegs, audacious Escobar floss raps, complementary beats, and honest-to-god inspiration-- too bad that record was his recent mixtape with DJ Green Lantern, not Untitled.
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Slant
in the years since, Nas’s taste for production has been sporadically successful and widely uneven, and that’s the case on Untitled as well.
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Focus Hiphop
This is easily one of my favorite albums from Nas. I think it contains some of the best beats Nas has ever rapped over, as well as some of the best subject matter Nas has ever touched on in his music.
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Los Angeles Times
“Untitled” is littered with flaccid attempts at pop crossover, with “Hero” and “We Make the World Go Round” two egregious examples. Not only do the plays for radio riches feel forced, they make Nas’ Neiman Marxist radicalism seem glaringly hypocritical, even by rap standards.
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BBC
But if it's food for thought you're after, as opposed to oodles of hook-laden tracks, this album won't disappoint.
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Sputnik Music
The lyrical performances on this album, are outstanding, and beat most of the other albums, that Nas has ever came out with. This album may very well have been the best hip hop album of 2008, even better than "Rising Down" by The Roots, better than "The Preface" by Elzhi, better than "Pro Tools" by GZA, better than "3rd World" by Immortal Technique, and better than every other hip hop album in 2008.
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Pop Matters
In the end, the eerily hectic quiet coupled with Nas’ transcendent poetry make for a great introduction to perhaps the most philosophically and thematically complex album of his career.
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Tiny Mixtapes
With his untitled album, it seems clear Nas ate his art only to be dominated by the gazing, domineering spectator.
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NPR
As a result, Untitled may never have the same cultural impact as Pac at his most political. Still, its urgent politics work as a love letter to black American culture.
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Independent
with Untitled, Nas lays out enough plausible answers to accommodate the most unaccountable symptoms of America's ailing body politic.
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Drowned in Sound
Mixing his ear for hits, like single ‘Hero’, with the political eloquence that marks the record out, this ought to be the album that promotes Nas back up into the super leagues that 1994’s Illmatic originally shot him into. Social progress may seem stillborn, but hip-hop, still, isn't dead.
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The Village Voice
From another perspective, though, the album boils down to a “Vote Obama” PSA; on “Black President,” Barack is mentioned for the second time and officially endorsed over marching-band drums and Tupac’s iconic lines: “And though it seems heaven-sent/We ain’t ready to see a black president.” Controversy aside, without any truly addictive tracks, you can’t consider Nas’s latest among his greatest. But it’s hard not to appreciate the effort.
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IGN
This is one of those albums that seems to have so much to say that it ultimately loses its focus.
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The Quietus
‘Untitled’ is the type of focused and sustained firebomb which could only be delivered by an elder statesman, the type of album you’d hope Public Enemy, KRS-One or Ice Cube may yet still pull off in their later years. That it’s also an album being sold to teenagers in Wal-Mart is cause for celebration.
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Entertainment Weekly
In a summer of ”Lollipop,” it’s refreshing to hear a complicated record that doesn’t shy from grown-up ambition.
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Cokemachineglow
With this understanding that we have, Nas, you’ve rendered the word impotent. Good job! But what to do with all the malaise you’ve left behind? No, I’m not crying. I’m trying not to yawn.
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All Hiphop
Untitled has delivered on its potential as a cogent, intellectually honest piece of art.
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Future Producers
An album I can go through... skipping only once or twice. Recommended as the best hip hop thang out there.... Lil Wayne is not touching Nas on the social relevance here.... Nas is forever.
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