Nas - King’s Disease II ALBUM REVIEW

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I seriously cannot believe that A Boogie wit da Hoodie is on a Nas album.


Look, if you know anything about rap, you know that Nas doesn’t need any kind of introduction. One of the most legendary figures to ever be on the mic, he’s also one of the most hard-hitting writers in the mainstream as well. This album here is the sequel to last year’s Grammy-winning project King’s Disease, but I think it’s a hot take when I say that this album didn’t do much for me. Yeah, it’s good and a fun listen, but that’s all it was to me. Whether I like it or not, we now have King’s Disease II. Just like the last one, it’s entirely produced by Hit-Boy and it includes features from Eminem, Ms. Lauryn Hill, EPMD, A Boogie wit da Hoodie, YG, Charlie Wilson, and Blxst. New Nas always gets me excited, so let’s get right into it.

I’m a sucker for some good jazz rap beats, and there’s a crazy amount of them here. Hell, I’d say that this includes some of the best jazz rap of the year so far. My favorite song off this was “Moments,” where I’d contest that this is his best written song in at least a decade. I could put “Count Me In” in this same category too, but I personally prefer the beat on “Moments” so that might trump it. On the complete other end of the spectrum, what isn’t a jazz rap beat is a trap beat. I personally haven’t been a giant trap fan and just prefer jazz rap more, but Nas does sound pretty good over trap beats too. What’s also worth noting is that Hit-Boy gave Nas a lot of variety and I think it’s so much that I wouldn’t even consider it a one-producer album, but it is. I might as well touch on the big player features. It was great to hear Ms. Lauryn Hill rapping again on “Nobody,” Charlie Wilson sounds amazing on “No Phony Love,” and I guess the only underwhelming feature comes in the form of one Eminem on the remix of Nas’s single from the Judas and the Black Messiah soundtrack, “EPMD.” Although, it’s pretty surreal to hear him shout out MF DOOM.

Well, prove me wrong on this one. King’s Disease II is a lot better than the first one. Hit-Boy is more versatile with his beats and Nas is the sharpest he’s ever been as a writer and performer. The best part about this is that this doesn’t feel like b-sides from the first King’s Disease. This is a brand new beast, and I’m glad it exists.


9/10


Listen here

YouTube Music




King’s Disease II is a Mass Appeal release.

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