'Nasir' Is the One Thing the Rapper has Never Been Before – Dull

Every Nas album since the turn of the century has closely orbited a major theme. At his most overt (he called an album Hip Hop Is Dead in 2006 and tried to call another Nigger two years later), the iconic Queens rapper will trace one idea from a dozen different angles, writing high-concept Fox News disses or rapping like a 1920s bootlegger. Sometimes he's more subtle: 2002's God’s Son, released exactly a year after he telegraphed a return to form on Stillmatic, feigns the sa