Yahoo! Music Album Review

Released on 18/12/06
Label: Def Jam

It's a bleak prognosis. The genre that has poured more money into the record industry's coffers over the past decade than any other is stiff, cold, lifeless. Why? Too many rewards have been bestowed on limited talents too early in their careers; the pursuit of fame has supplanted a love of the art and a need to reinvent as the prime motivation. Hip hop is dead, it's been killed by neglect, starved of imagination, strangled by mediocrity. Like a civilisation in decline, it can't remember or interpret its own history. Game over.

That, in brief, is Nasir Jones's thesis here. And the only aspect of this superlative album that doesn't support his conclusions is the very fact that he's here, in the heart of this amazing record, proving that there is still a place in hip hop for creativity, intelligence and a love of the culture. What sets Nas apart from the largely dire competition today is the thoroughness of his work. "Hip Hop Is Dead" is a richly detailed record, lavishly executed, almost every syllable working towards the central theme, the greater truth.

The title track is an encapsulation of his theme, but rather than just say what he feels over a hot beat, Nas builds his argument in densely layered, interweaved slabs of whatever material - musical, lyrical, sonics, arrangement - is at his disposal. The verses are even recorded piecemeal, lines audibly patched in from different takes, to emphasise how lesser talents assemble their records. It's Shakespearean in its subtlety.

The record glistens, like one of those Jacob The Jeweller confections, but with wit, imagination and provocative perception rather than eye-catching bling. "Where Are They Now" eulogises lost rap heroes; "Black Republican" is the long-awaited duet with Jay-Z, both men getting introspective over lavish orchestration; "Can't Forget About You", a delicious will.i.am conceit, samples Nat King Cole in a fashion you might expect of OutKast; is a ludicrously exciting hip hop gumshoe detective novel; "Blunt Ashes" a stoned rumination on the pain the stars of yesteryear went through.

The album has its weaknesses. Nas still has a tendency to favour unremarkable beats from time to time, and the collaboration with Dr Dre, "Hustlers", is sonically disappointing. "You Can't Kill Me", a first-person narrative of a high-living rap star having a gun-fight in a club, is linked to the overall theme, but strays a touch too far from the path. But in a year when every established star, from Busta Rhymes to Snoop Dogg and even Jay-Z, has struggled to deliver anything conceptually consistent, Nas's insight, erudition and poetic intensity override all other concerns.

The music may be dying, but however much Nas may beg to differ, he is here not to bury hip hop, but to save it.

    by Angus Batey