Best albums of 2023 #20

 #20: Nas, ‘Magic 2’

Genre: Hip Hop




Nas as an artist has had an interesting journey. He began with the groundbreaking 90s album Illmatic, which changed rap as a genre permanently. After that, he continued to make music that seemed to taper off in quality for a few years. Then, in 2020 to 2022, he released the King’s Disease trilogy, three solid albums that resolidified him as a giant of the genre. Now, in 2023, he’s back with another album that essentially serves as an interlude between the trilogy and what he plans to do next. And if Magic 2 is any indication of the quality of his next few albums, Nas is here to stay for a long time.


To say that this is solely a Nas album would be misleading. It’s produced by the famous and omnipresent Hit-Boy, a staple of the east coast rap scene. Although the beats rarely sound too different from one another, the pair have crafted a winning formula. Nas is a talented and experienced enough rapper to twist his cadence to fit the intricacies of the instrumentals, highlighting their differences and making each of them seem like a different experience. Surprisingly, despite the fact that it’s in the classic Nas style which we’ve seen before, it never feels boring or repetitive.


Classic is certainly a word that comes to mind when listening to this album. While the production sounds modern, it’s definitely an homage to the 90s eras in which Nas got his start. It’s very much a tried and true style, but it still works just as well today, especially with a new coat of paint. The lyrics of the album seem to echo this as well. They speak of the same struggles with racism, violence, and paranoia as much of 90s rap did, but with a sense of victory. It feels as if someone is looking back on the struggles of the past with a new lens of personal success, which makes quite a bit of a sense considering the fame Nas has achieved over the years.


In fact, my favorite song on the album, Pistols On Your Album Cover, focuses almost entirely on this subject. It begins with an eerie keyboard building up, something straight out of the intro to an old horror movie. Suddenly, it bursts into an excellent beat, with one of the coldest opening lines to a song I’ve ever heard (I’m not going to spoil it, go listen to it yourself) and drums which echo in a chilling way, complementing the loop playing in the beat throughout the song. The lyrics begin with homages to various 90s albums, however, the topic then shifts into something else. Nas talks about how the people around him in that part of his life missed their opportunities to do great things, and how he’s reached that success that they never could. It feels reflective, but still focused on the present. 


And this song is no anomaly. When it comes to lyrics and style, Nas is still just as good as he was all those years ago. In the song Motion, he uses a more flexible and loose flow to fit the string-filled beat for a truly epic experience. In the final song, One Mic One Gun, he collaborates with the more recent rapper 21 Savage to call attention to their similarities. 21 is known for his excellent features and this song is no exception.


Yes, this is classic Nas once again, but no, it doesn’t feel dated. Instead, this is a perfectly timely and enjoyable album from a rapper who’s still going at 50 years old and knows exactly what he’s doing. It’s hard to complain about something as refreshing as that.


Favorite songs:

1. Pistols on Your Album Cover

2. Motion

3. One Mic One Gun

Least favorite song: Earvin Magic Johnson (it's weirdly distorted?)

Favorite moment: When the beat hits in Pistols on Your Album Cover

Favorite lyric: "My journey was great but difficult, what is life if it isn't both?"


https://open.spotify.com/album/2TcGsG6Ht4iMbEQ0u62Rbz?si=NxxWFbHaThuZTCqDDAgSVg

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