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Artist Fri Apr 20 2007
Never on schedule, but always on time.
Only in rare cases can an artist be called out and called a savior in the
same year. Only rarer in hip-hop, where entire careers can be summarized by an artist's choice of adversaries and the resulting verbal sparring match and the inevitable "who won/who got sonned".
Nas’ career trajectory started high in 1994 with Illmatic and had sunk pretty low amongst hip-hop followers with a number of iffly projects, spotty albums, and Jay-Z’s verbal barrage “Takeover”. The resulting responses seemed to have stirred up the sleeping giant.
With last year’s “Hip Hop is Dead,” fans and critics were faced with the fact that an insider, a pioneer of the genre, had essentially called it over, that the show was done, pack up and go home. He then spent the album revitalizing the art, garnering critical acclaim and healthy album sales. Couple the popular response to the album with the “street” response of his release of three remixes of “Where Are They Now?” The album version mentioned various 80s and 90s artists and asked where they were. The remixes brought some of those artists out to shine once again. This goodwill gesture was just the latest to endear himself to an audience that wasn’t really paying attention much his recent output, or at least since Illmatic
He comes to the Congress Theater tonight as part of his “Hip Hop Is Dead Tour”. More info available here.
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Where Are They Now? remix - courtesy of Soul Sides
Can't Forget About You - video
