Nas - God's Son

After regaining his rightful status as the greatest in the game with 2001's incredible Stillmatic album, and then cementing the deal in '02 with both a compilation (The Lost Tapes) and a bullshit EP (From Illmatic to Stillmatic: The Remixes), it seemed that Nasir Jones was once again at a high point. In the public eye, the man was back at the top, going out of his way to diss everyone in the game and still gaining support from all of the hip-hop heads, who at this time were in awe at the man's astonishing comeback. Behind the scenes, however, all was not well for Nasir. Tragically, his mother passed away in hospital on April 7th of 2002, and this deeply troubled Nas, but also gave him new inspiration and emotion to pour into a new album, which he titled God's Son after the tattoo he had placed on his belly. The project was lead off by two of the most successful singles of the man's career, "I Can" and "Made You Look", and when it came out in November of 2002, it was quite the event. 

For starters, this wasn't long after Jay-Z had dropped his 2002 effort The Blueprint 2: The Gift & The Curse, on which was a song directed specifically at Nasir, the title track no less, that questioned the man's legitimacy as a spokesperson for "real" hip-hop. And let's not forget that Hov had prior to this dropped a single diss entitled "Supa Ugly", one of the more personal and mean-spirited diss-tracks in hip-hop history, at least until all the drama that occurred recently. Yes, he apologised for it at the request of his mother, but what had been said had been said, and if anyone thought that Nas was going to let such disrespectful tracks go ignored, then they were sorely disappointed when God's Son was put out. Yes, there was a disstrack to Hov on here, but unlike with Stillmatic, that song wasn't the main event. This album as a whole has been praised for containing some of the greatest Nasir songs ever, including the aforementioned "Made You Look", as well as "Get Down" and "Dance", and it is often regarded as one of the more underrated releases in his catalogue - despite the success of some of the singles, this album stands as one of Nasir's lowest charting to date. 

Why this is, I'm not sure, because this project not only had the much anticipated second Hova response on it, but it also had a decent selection of features - a posthumous 2Pac was added, and so were two of the more popular singers in early 2000s R&B, Kelis and Alicia Keys. And on top of this, we had production from Eminem (wow!), Salaam Remi, The Alchemist and Chucky Thompson amongst some other names, including Ron Browz, who wasn't quite yet the miserably bad messiah of wailing autotune that he would grow to be - that guy produced Ether, believe it or not. The line-up on here was great, and even if the general public weren't as hyped about this as some of Nas' previous efforts, it seems, I personally was ecstatic to receive this CD for my 15th birthday - that's exactly two years and one day ago, might I add. So, does God's Son live up to both the incredible album and astonishing compilation projects released before it? Well, let's get into it. 

1. Get Down (prod. Nas & Salaam "The Chameleon" Remi)

Back when Salaam Remi went by the more creative moniker of "The Chameleon" - this would sadly soon be dropped. Over a funky and truly iconic instrumental that he actually helped produce alongside the aforementioned Salaam, Nas tells a couple of stories based on real life events that he heard about, that overall aim to critique the lifestyle and also situations that a lot of young black men are or were forced into around this time. In the first verse, he talks about a gangsta who was locked up in jail for something he didn't do, and then during his trial he decided to shoot up the whole courtroom and hold the judge for ransom out of rage, which was a story told in a strange way that detailed Nas' own reality at the same time, and aimed to express his thoughts that this could've been him. In the second verse he talks about a trip to L.A. where he ended up getting caught in a sort of beef against these dudes that gave him a laced blunt - it ends up with a man being shot inside a hospital, and a whole bunch of other people being killed, which ended up involving Nas because he was down with one of these crews. The storytelling in this song is made even more impressive by the intriguing structure and the incredible rhyme schemes, and Nas paints a vivid picture with his words here in the same way he always does. Oh, and that instrumental? One of the greatest of all time. There's a reason everyone remembers this joint. 

2. The Cross (prod. Eminem)

On this song, Nas humbly imagines himself as the Jesus of hip-hop, not too much of a stretch when you realise what the title of this album might actually refer to. This song definitely doesn't stand up to the first song, largely due to Eminem's slow paced, monotone instrumental that sounds like everything else he ever produced, but it's still pretty stellar nonetheless - Nas delivers two excellent verses filled with references to his personal life, with the second verse offering his thoughts on his issues with women (remember, his girlfriend in the late '90s actually slept with his arch-nemesis), and the first tackling issues with his brother Jungle, and also coming up with a new acronym for his name - isn't it always fun when rappers do that? The chorus and beat on here aren't entirely entertaining, but I still like Nas' verses enough to call it a winner. 

3. Made You Look (prod. Salaam "The Chameleon" Remi)

After an abrupt gunshot that cuts the last song short, the big single from this album starts up, one that is often seen as Nas' best post-Illmatic tune. I wouldn't go that far, as I would take a "Nas Is Like", or a "The Message" over this any day, but that's not to be taken as a knock towards this one in any way - in fact, it's more of a reflection of just how many incredible songs appear in Nas' catalogue. Hell, to me this isn't even the best song yet on this album - that'd be "Get Down". And yet and still, this song is indeed incredible, and deserves all the accolade that it has received over the years. The instrumental from Salaam Remi sounds slick, and yet still sounds like it's straight from the gutter at exactly the same time, with there being less of a melody, and more of weird sound effects with the occasional hint of a bassline coming in here and there. It's Nas that really makes this one though, with one liners that are a staple of conversation to this day, and boasts that rival that of the biggest egomaniacs on the planet. "Don't say it's topless - say the titties is out" is a fucking terrible line, but it's also bloody hilarious, and that's probably more than part of the reason why it's so iconic. And who could forget "you a slave to a page in my rhyme book"?? This song is incredible. and the little acapella bit at the end somehow makes it even better. What a classic single. 

4. Last Real Nigga Alive (prod. Ron Browz)

And so, here we are. The disstrack towards Jay-Z, once again produced by Ron Browz in his "prime" of sorts, and it's quite honestly my favourite track on the whole record. Yes, "Ether" is still the slightly better diss in my opinion simply due to its brute force, but this one is no slouch either - like Hov did on his song "Blueprint 2", Nas goes less for the things about Jay that is plain to see, and more in at him for personal flaws, and observations Nas has made behind the scenes. I think the most brutal line on this song has to be "in the middle of that, Jay tried to sneak attack, assassinate my character, degrade my hood", which comes right after Nas spends a few bars talking about his final moments with his mother. Obviously Jay-Z didn't spend time meticulously calculating as to how he could kick Nas at his most vulnerable position, as that would make him a truly awful person, but Nas does word it in a way here that makes it seem like this was the case, and that is truly a brutal shot - painting Jay as a meddling evil entity who brags about fucking a man's wife on record while said man is spending time in hospital with his very sick mother. The overall structure of this track is very creative too, with Nas actually devoting very little of these two long verses to shooting at Jay, and instead delivering a hip-hop history lesson that aims to explain the rise of Jay-Z, and how he came to be in a similar position to Nas. The actual disses are brutal, but the way he went about this track was very creative too, and that I appreciate. And I know he sung the chorus of "Arab Money", but there's no way anyone doesn't like this Ron Browz beat, especially that part when the drums cut out before the final hook. This is honest to God my favourite song here. Fantastic stuff. "It hurt when I had to kill him, and his whole squad for dolo..."

5. Zone Out (feat. Bravehearts) (prod. Salaam "The Chameleon" Remi)

There was no way that God's Son was going to keep up such a potent run for long, and oh would you look at that it hasn't. I don't think anyone could have predicted this crap to appear on such an album though - this song seriously sucks. To be perfectly honest, I actually don't even mind this instrumental - it's not in any way conventional, sure, but it is unique, and I love the weird electronic noises that go up and down throughout. Unfortunately, this beat is not at all suited for people to actually rap over, much less people who are members of the worst group in early 2000s hip-hop - the bloody Bravehearts. Look, I know Jungle is Nas' brother and his rap name is pretty cool, but on the mic this guy truly ain't shit - his voice sucks, and his lyrics suck even more. And on this beat, he can't even incorporate a good flow to save himself. Not that Wiz does any better, that is, and I don't even like Nas' performance - he spends the first few lines spelling out a bunch of words for no other reason than to apparently fill up space. The only, I repeat only good bar in this song is this diss to Cam'Ron - "you got a house in Virginia, the only way you sicker than us". That line's pretty funny. But otherwise, even the Nas Stans can admit - this shit is fucking whack.

6. Hey Nas (feat. Kelis & Claudette Ortiz of City High) (prod. Salaam "The Chameleon" Remi)

Truth be told, I was never truly convinced by this song either, but after the monstrosity that was "Zone Out", I'm sure listeners will just be happy to hear a normal instrumental and verses not done by members of the Bravehearts. After stating on "The Cross" that he didn't feel entirely comfortable doing R&B songs, Nas apparently once again puts himself into discomfort by including a plainly R&B influenced tune on here that involves him stating how he needs a faithful chick who won't have sex with his enemies. Sounds obvious, but you have to remember what his last girl did to him. Also, having both of these singers in to sing pretty much the same thing just comes across as him boasting about his high up connections, which probably wasn't the intention, but oh well. The instrumental on here is dreadfully bland, and you certainly won't be humming this chorus to yourself while walking home from a long day at the office, but if you're into love tunes that don't have much in the way of real passion, you'll probably enjoy this. This song is more interesting to me as a piece of curiosity - firstly, Nas' longtime collaborator AZ had a song entitled "Hey AZ" about five years before this - I wonder how he felt about that - , and also, Nas ended up marrying one of these two female singers a couple of years after this song's release. Ain't that some interesting shit?

7. I Can (prod. Salaam "The Chameleon" Remi)

The lead single unless I'm very much mistaken, and pretty much the polar opposite to the other single from the album, "Made You Look". On this one, Nas' takes the incredibly familiar melody of Beethoven's "Für Elise", and raps over it in an interesting move that does kind of work, but also comes across as rather gimmicky today. I can't imagine that this song was ever actually played anywhere, but as a motivational anthem for the kids, it works, as Nas teaches the youth on the dangers of drugs, rapists and STDs, and a multitude of the other things that make the world such a crappy place. The chorus is a bit silly, and there's no way I can take this beat seriously, but I think that Nas took what he had and made something pretty listenable out of it with some very stellar verses. This song is alright. 

8. Book Of Rhymes (prod. The Alchemist)

I never really realised until my relisten today just how much of this album was produced by Salaam Remi - that guy has covered all but two of the songs so far. What's even more weird is that he doesn't show up again on the album - interesting sequencing choice. Say what you will about Nas, but there's no knocking the man's creativity - on this song, he reads from a book of various rhymes he had written a while ago, and the results are astonishingly entertaining, with the rhymes that Nas does read out actually not being bad in my opinion - the only iffy point being that the verses are inevitably thematically random. The instrumental from The Alchemist is easily one of his best too, but it's Nas that makes this the classic it is. I especially love when he rhymes his ad-libs with the words he's reading on the page - "amongst hustlers, crack sellers, liars and squares - nah, that was weak there" has to be one of the best moments here. Nasir also displays more humour on this one song than he did on the entire Stillmatic album, so that's something. This is definitely the best song since "Last Real Nigga Alive", which is pretty funny considering these are supposed to be Nas' throwaway rhymes. But if we learned anything from The Lost Tapes, it's that you don't always realise when you're throwing away your best material.

9. Thugz Mansion (N.Y.) (feat. 2Pac & J. Phoenix) (prod. Claudio Cueni & Michael Herring)

This song originally appeared as a 2Pac solo on his 2002 posthumous album Better Dayz, and then it was remixed by Nas, also appearing on that same album. This is therefore the third different version, and since it appears on the Nas record, it makes sense that there's more Nas than Pac. This retains Nas' verse from that remix, keeping it for last, and also takes 2Pac's second verse on that song, putting it in the middle. The first verse from Nas on this version is all new to this album. This song is quite inventive, as it is spit over nothing but what sound like acoustic guitars, giving the song a bright and completely innocent atmosphere that I normally wouldn't enjoy, but I actually think works really well here. The verses from Nas that imagine a place for people growing up in the hood to reside after they pass are both very stellar, but my favourite verse probably belongs to Pac, purely because of the content that revolves around him speaking to his mother from heaven - it's crazy, as this verse was only released after his passing. This shit damn near makes me cry every time, and rest assured that Nas does his thing on here too. Shit, even the sung hook is good. This is an excellent track. 

10. Mastermind (prod. The Alchemist)

I remember when I was younger I used to always praise this, for the odd reason that it wasn't incredible, but merely good. For some reason I found that to be a positive point. This track exhibits more of a mafioso feel, with the lyrical content being very similar to what we found on some of the songs on It Was Written - if it wasn't for the beat sounding so futuristic, maybe it could have passed for something from there. This song is all about Nas describing himself as a mastermind mob boss, or at least the first two verses are, with him talking about his meetings with other crime gurus, and also how to avoid getting caught up in unnecessary drama. In the third verse, Nas actually talks about his real life, leading me to believe that this song serves to paint Nas as a master of his craft - he is to the rap world whatever the head of the mob is to the mob (I don't know much about organised crime, I'm sorry). There's also another mention of the "King Of New York" idea in the third verse here, which I find to be very interesting. All these years later, I still find this to be a very stellar song, with great rapping from Nasir and a fantastic instrumental. This is a dope cut. 

11. Warrior Song (feat. Alicia Keys) (prod. Alicia Keys)

Featuring and produced by Alicia Keys, and yet this is actually one of the harder hitting songs on the album. The instrumental (preceded by what sounds like tribal chanting at the beginning of the song) is intense and exciting, and Nas' flow is quite different for him, aiming to keep the pace of the beat. The lyrical content on here is pretty solid too - the first verse is just some motivational bullshit that sounds OK, but during the second verse Nas actually goes into his feelings surrounding his mother's death, and with the most focus on that subject exhibited so far on this LP. The third verse talks about the people that went behind Nas' back, which is also interesting subject matter, but I think the most engaging and well-written has to be that second verse. The chorus here is also very catchy - the only part I don't like is the weird "I've been high, I've been low" bridge that seems to appear constantly, that has Nas and Alicia singing in union. It's not terrible, but it is rather annoying. Still, this song has grown on me a decent amount, considering I used to think it was boring as shit. 

12. Revolutionary Warfare (feat. Lake) (prod. The Alchemist)

I've never loved this one - firstly, there's the fact that it's a motivational song that comes right after another motivational song, but there's also the repetitive hook, which I really don't like at all. Shit, I don't even like this song title - it just looks corny to me. Alchemist's beat on here is OK, but it gets old fast, and so it's left up to the MCs to attempt to save this one. None of these verses are bad, but aside from some good ("you ain't a man, you a coward if you can't support the girl you put a seed in") and bad ("modern day Hitler" - the fuck was that??) lines, not too much stands out. I honestly don't have much to say - this song really doesn't do a whole lot for me. 

13. Dance (prod. Chucky Thompson)

Shit, you wouldn't think an album that included a song as ridiculously stupid as "Zone Out" would also have the potential to make you cry twice, but here we are. Over an enormously sentimental beat from the Hitmen's Chucky Thompson, that seems to have been lab crafted to extract water from your eyes, Nas dedicates a whole song to reminiscing on his life with his mother, and speaking on how much he misses her. The verses on here contain multitudes of terribly sad tales that really do get you in your feels - it's surely a pain that nearly every man will go through in their life, and Nas had to go through it younger than most, so with him it would be even sadder. The chorus on here is slightly silly, with the aggressive "if I could only have" juxtaposing heavily with the almost squeaky singing voice Nas uses on the rest of said chorus, but the verses make up for it by including some of Nas' most heartfelt and passionate moments on record to date. And perhaps the moment that will truly send any heavyweight rugby player into a bawling mess of tears is when Nas' father Old Dara comes in for a bit of noodling on the cornet at the end of the song, showing how the pair of them got together to pay tribute to Nas' mother in the end. This is one of the saddest hip-hop songs of all time, and one of the best on this album, easily. 

14. Heaven (feat. Jully Black) (prod. Agile, co-prod. Saukrates)

Caught a mistake! - Jully Black gets a feature credit in the booklet here, but not the back cover. Now that's bloody annoying. An interesting thing to notice about this is that Redman's protege Saukrates receives a production credit on this song, and what's more, he also provides vocals on this chorus. Intriguing stuff. Anyway, this track is definitely another highlight on this album. Nas' flow and rhyme scheme throughout his two verses is something to be marvelled at every single time, and the chorus on here is catchy as all hell. I really enjoy the slightly menacing beat on this track too. As for Nas' actual content, this song appears to simply be him discussing, you guessed it, the idea of heaven, which he already did on "Thugz Mansion", but whatever. The chorus exemplifies the message of the song best - if getting to heaven was easy, would you do it, or would you continue to live out your life on this Earth? It's an interesting dilemma, and one Nas handles well if you ask me. Him starting to rap a third verse but then turning it into a bullshit spoken outro was a bit mean-spirited though, I have to say. Still, this is a fantastic way to end the album. 

Certain pressings of God's Son were issued with a bonus disc, which I shall now discuss since I do own it. 

1. Thugz Mirror (Freestyle) (prod. The Alchemist)

Nas drops a freestyle over a very weird instrumental from The Alchemist that is made up of some disjointed drums, and some reversed sound effect, and that's about it. I don't mind this, and for a freestyle Nas does manage to cram in a lot of political messages, but since this isn't something that Nas can have put much thought into, I'll do him a favour and not overanalyse anything here. 

2. Pussy Killz (prod. Chucky Thompson)

By far and away the best song to appear on this bonus disc. The start of this one sounds like the beginning of Redman's "Da Da DaHHH", but the actual sample was oddly used in a different rap song that I also love - DMX's "Stop Being Greedy". The instrumental on this thing is quite unsettling, and also very good, and Nas uses it to spit two verses that discuss exactly what you may have discerned from the title - how lust can lead to murder. The first verse speaks on this in more generic terms, and it's OK, but really what you're coming into this one for is the second verse, where Nas spits a tale about a gentleman he is friends with, who mistakenly believes he has spotted his wife in the audience of a boxing match that he's watching on TV, with another man. Even after it's proved it wasn't actually her, the guy still goes absolutely mental, leading to a harrowing ending to the song that does leave you feeling quite sad. This song should have replaced "Hey Nas" on the album - imagine how badass that would've been!

3. The G.O.D. (prod. Swizz Beatz)

The most aggressive of the three bonus songs on here, one that is musically pretty weak, but does have some interesting lyrical moments that make it worth the listen. The instrumental from Swizz Beatz on here is pretty cheap sounding all in all (well, what did you expect), and while the chorus that spells out the album title is fairly entertaining, the part where Nas starts singing is simply painful to witness. It's the verses that are the main point of interest, though - during the first verse, Nasir references his beef with Hot 97, and calls back to the Cam'Ron disses that appeared on "Zone Out". And during the second verse, he gets to reminding us of how he destroyed all of the rappers that he helped to come up on the previous album's "Destroy & Rebuild". Unfortunately, fairly interesting verses don't make up for shit beat and shit singing. Sorry, Nas.

While it stands as one of his more inconsistent albums to date if you ask me, God's Son is still a pretty fantastic listen. This album proves that as Nas has gotten older he has also gotten more mature, and it also shows that he is still able to make music of the same quality that he released during his heyday. It's just unfortunate that this album is bogged down by some weak moments that really didn't feel like they were there on Stillmatic or The Lost Tapes. I mean, everyone knows "Zone Out" is pretty crap, but "Hey Nas" and "Revolutionary Warfare" are both pretty inessential too, and I feel like "I Can" should have remained a novelty single, and should not have landed on this profanity filled album with some of the more aggressive tracks to appear in Nas' entire career. Still, for the most part this is a very well-produced, very well-rapped album that contains some of the more experimental ideas of Nas' career, whether that be the rapping over acoustic guitars only on "Thugz Mansion (N.Y.)", taking rhymes he had thrown away years ago and delivering them for us now on "Book Of Rhymes", or taking arguably the most unique approach to a disstrack we have seen in the history of hip-hop music on "Last Real Nigga Alive". And when it comes to the highs this album has, boy are they there, and in spades. "Get Down" is one of the greatest opening songs in hip-hop history (and still isn't as good as "N.Y. State Of Mind" or "The Message" - boy, this guy is good), "Made You Look" is a fantastic hardcore banger for the streets, and the final two songs stand as some of the most thought provoking, tear inducing music of the early 2000s. This album is not perfect, as it's sound isn't at all consistent and there's some pretty prominent duds in there, but for a large portion of this album you will not only be entertained, but also wowed by the incredible storytelling, masterful flows and rhyme schemes, and incredibly memorable production exhibited on about 75% of the songs here. I'd definitely recommend a listen of this album - it proved that Nas could make the personal, insightful stuff without sacrificing any of his image, and I think for what it attempted to do, it did very, very well. This is a great LP.

Best Tracks: Get Down, The Cross, Made You Look, Last Real Nigga Alive, Book Of Rhymes, Thugz Mansion (N.Y.), Dance, Heaven, Pussy Killz

Worst Tracks: Zone Out, Hey Nas

Way, way more on Nasir to be found if you click here.