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Originally Posted by louder
you can really hear Jay's voice crackin' on Song Cry.
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Read an interesting article in (don't judge me) Source yesterday, in which an editorial was written on their best hip hop albums of all time list, made god knows when, and completely obsolete now.
Anyway, it was mostly about Illmatic, which I assume was #1, and how it essentially created a shadow so great that neither hip hop as a genre, not Nas himself has yet climbed out of. ( Interesting to imagine that Illmatic may have killed Nas's career; or at least greatly diminished his chances of making music that sounded "authentic" when compared to it.)
ANYWAY... It also said that Jay-Z had "only hinted" at his skill level once or twice on Reasonable Doubt, and that he did not even really begin his career as a hip hop icon until Blueprint was released. They mentioned "Song Cry" specifically as a then-high point for Jay.
It must have been an old list. I was only reading it out of boredom, and if I ever saw the list I don't remember when or where. But the fact that Kanye West was not mentioned, and that Lil Wayne and even Eminem were absent from the editorial tells me it must have been an early 00's affair. I'm guessing it placed Illmatic and Reasonable Doubt at 1 and 2, and that the author was just doing some navel gazing, nostalgic musing about those decisions in hindsight.
To me, Reasonable Doubt is a cherished gem, and is far better than anything other than the black album, and possibly Blueprint. But to say he was barely showing signs of the artist he became seems like a backward statement. Over his next several records, he was lucky to catch 1/4 an album's worth of the quality of work showcased on RD.
Nas... Well... Bad has had a harder time of it. I'm not sure even Illmatic can save his ass in retrospect. Magma Carta Holy Grail may have been "meh" as hell, but people still rocked it like crazy all over the cities, meaning the urban youth still relates to his music, for some fucking reason. Also, the album has at least a few killer tracks. The rest, except for that bullshit love story "cliche cliche cliche" song with Beyoncé, are totally tolerable.
Anyway, I'm done with my shit now, so I'll wrap this up.