(AllHipHop Rumors) Hmmmmmmm. It makes you stop and ask, does Hip Hop legend Nas have a great ear when it comes to picking beats?
While Nas is certainly regarded as a Hip Hop legend, the emcee is often criticized for allegedly picking terrible beats for his songs. Eminem has been criticized for this as well.
Perhaps Nas raps on beats that match his demeanor, style, and flow etc.
DJ Vlad recently sat down with Salaam Remi to get his opinion on Nas’ music and production over the years, especially since Remi has produced a lot for Nas.
Vlad has repeatedly expressed that he feels that Nas is one of the worst beat pickers of all time with the exception of ‘Illmatic’. He feels like when he puts out his bodies of his work in comparison to other artists of his caliber, beat wise, his music isn’t consistently as strong as a Jay Z, Kanye, Drake etc.
Salaam pointed out that Nas doesn’t care what anyone thinks, and that “beat picking” is not his lane or his zone. He writes to what he actually feels inspired to. He writes and picks his album based on the content of lyrics he’s on, not necessarily what everyone thinks is the hottest beat.
Now while solid, and what I like to call “nasty” production definitely helps to make and compliment a track, some argue that things like lyricism and delivery hold more weight.
Remi brings up a good point, how many artists have been in the game as long as Nas, and have been doing it as consistently as he has? He also says people shouldn’t live for critics or their opinions.
What are your thoughts? Are all components needed to make a great track? Does the content of Nas’ music outweigh his beats? Is he that bad at picking beats? Does it matter? Does Nas have subpar production?
