With occasional reflection on the perpetual absurdity/intrigue of life and society in general.

Monday, November 21, 2022

The Optical Files #163: Nas - Untitled (2008)


Since I tend to think of Untitled as one of the newer Nas albums, it surprised me when I realized that it is now as old as Illmatic was when it dropped. I remember buying it on release day along with David Banner's The Greatest Story Ever Told. It took a few spins for the Banner album to lose its luster, but I felt like the Nas got more interesting with each listen. To this day, it think it's his most underrated album & a masterpiece of conscious rap.

Nas was always bracketed together with the political rappers because of his intellect & his pro-Black lens, even though his perspective was always that of street poet more than political activist. On Untitled you can hear the development of his political education, as he discusses the legacy of colonialism on "America," the tactics of the right-wing media (complete with insistent imagery around eyes & the act of seeing) on "Sly Fox," mixed feelings about Black capitalism on "We're Not Alone," & ambivalence about having suburban white fans who aren't really down for the cause on "Testify." It might have something to do with Nas hanging out with stic.man from dead prez, who is credited with co-writing 3 songs on the album, including 2 of the ones I just mentioned, & if the rumors are to be believed, had a hand in writing more as well. The ghostwriting rumors also implicate Jay Electronica, & I have to be honest, when you hear Nas rapping about UFOs & Freemasons, it's easy to believe that Jay Elec had something to do with it. At the very least, he's credited with producing the album opener "Queens Get the Money," a drumless piano loop with an abrupt change that sounds very Act I & sets the tone for Nas's most serious, politically-minded album to date. Even the album's 1 song about women, "Fried Chicken," is less sexual and more about comparing the Black woman's resilience to soul food: "Created by southern black women to serve massa' guest." Like the rest of the album, it's a complex song that reveals more with each listen.

Of course, releasing the record untitled was not Nasir's first choice. When he wanted to call it N-word-with-the-hard-R, Def Jam publicly supported him but behind the scenes there was a lot of pressure to change the title. He speaks directly to this controversy on the single "Hero" ("no matter what the CD called, I'm unbeatable y'all"), but the 2 tracks that have that word in their titles are more directly related to the theme. Both "N.I.*.*.E.R. (The Slave and the Master)" & "Y'all My Ni**as," in different ways, problematize the word & all it represents, although the conclusion might seem as glib as it is elegant: "if it offends you, it's meant to. It's that simple."

Album closer "Black President" became something of an anthem for me around the time of Obama's election. Nas saw everything coming: that Obama's charisma would sweep him into office, the huge racist backlash he would incur, the lip service he would pay to progressive Black causes without actually doing much: "will he keep it way real, every innocent ni**a in jail gets out on appeal/When he wins, will he really care still?" It certainly didn't take a Nastradamus to predict how everything would go down, but when I look back on myself as a 22 year-old caught up in the excitement of a historic dog & pony show, Nasir Jones was the lone voice of reason warning me to temper my expectations.

Nas always had the decency to keep his albums relatively short. With the exception of the double-disc Street's Disciple, since the dawn of the 21st century they've all been under an hour, with a few in the sub-40 minute range. It's a good thing, too, since his albums are so lyrically dense that anything longer than an hour would be exhausting. Even in a dense catalog, Untitled is particularly unforgiving, throwing concept after complex conceit in your direction without giving you much time to catch up. All those multiple listens I gave it back then were justified, & revisiting it was a pleasure. As his last 3 albums have proven, Nas might have a slump here or there but you never know when he'll come back swinging. Untitled is top-tier. 

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