NAS: WHERE HE'S AT posted by O.W.

Nas: Where Ya'll At?
Forthcoming from Hip Hop Is Dead (Def Jam, 2006)

I don't purposely mean to be on a big hip-hop trip of late but new cuts like this keep poppin' off, plus it's always interesting to see where Nas is trying to move. Apparently, it's backwards and I don't mean that in a bad way (at least, I don't think).

What's interesting is that his last lead single, "Thief's Theme" was a reference back to his Illmatic days (literally) while the chorus of "Where Ya'll At?" actually nods back to his lead single from God's Son, "Made You Look." Nas better start making some more albums before he runs out of songs to quote himself from.

I don't think this strikes as hard as the last two lead singles but I'm not mad at its subtly tense vibe. It is ironic that he rhymes about how much money was spent for the right snare and it doesn't even sound like this song has one.

By the way, while Jay is boycotting KCristal, can we also have a moratorium on rappers shouting out Maybachs. I don't care how expensive they are, they're ugly and if they didn't cost more than 3-BD homes, no one would be caught dead in one, let alone repping for it.