UFAMM Ink

Why do I say or even suggest this? Well, if you really sit back and analyze the careers of both musically (leave out movies) you’ll be surprised at the major disparities. Nas is known for making perhaps one of the greatest hip hop albums of all time (in many peoples opinion) called Illmatic. Common is really known for one of the greatest if not the greatest hip hop song of all time (which is rightfully debatable) amply titled I Use To Love Her. Now let’s get into a little semantics – by breaking down all albums (or at least the important ones). First, I will put down Nas’ albums in order from first to last and I will do the same with Common, then you can simply judge on your own when of course your done with reading my blog. Album reviews done by Rolling Stone (RS) Magazine

Here are Nas’s albums:

1. Illmatic – RS - 4 stars
2. It Was Written – RS – 2 stars
3. I Am… – RS – 3.5 stars
4. Nastradamus – RS – 2 stars
5. Stillmatic – RS – 2.5 stars
6. The Lost Tapes – RS – 4 stars
7. God’s Son – RS – 3 stars
8. Street’s Disciple – RS – 3.5 stars
9. Hip Hop Is Dead – RS – 4 stars
10. Nas (N-Word) – RS – 4 stars

Here are Common’s albums:

1. Resurrection – RS – 4 stars
2. One Day It’ll All Make Sense – RS – 4 stars
3. Like Water For Chocolate – RS – 3.5 stars
4. Electric Circus – RS – 3 stars
5. Be – RS – 4 stars
6. Finding Forever – RS – 3.5 stars
7. Universal Mind Control – RS – 3 stars

Now, I know some of you are saying why not use a hip hop based source for these reviews? I used Rolling Stone because in my opinion they are more of a creditable source because they cover a wide range of music not just hip hop– although I did think they were way too tough on some of the albums listed. I didn’t want to use sources that are fan based like iTunes or Amazon — where you can find what I call a bunch of “Scrotum Scavengers” or “Scrotum Parasites” that blindly compromise their feelings towards an artist with their own fatuous ideology (unfortunately Nas is the recipient of a lot Scrotum Parasites). If you are a stat person and lived by averages, you could add all the individual album ratings and divide it by the number of albums to get your average. Nas averaged out to a 3.25 and Common averaged out to a 3.57 (ofcourse judging from RS reviews). But enough semantics lets give some straight up prospective by being honest to ourselves. Truth is, Nas has been coming up with some pretty weak albums or albums that has a bunch of weak material with some singles sprinkled around. Just because their is a couple singles sprinkled around, that doesn’t excuse an album of being weak. Some examples include Nastradamus (probably his weakest album) and Street’s Disciple which was filled with a bunch of empty tracks that had bad production and no direction. Honestly, I must say this, I happen to be a fan of both; I own albums of both of these artist– so my opinion isn’t bias. It just seems that no one is willing to call out Nas for some of his weakest works for whatever reason. If you listen to both artist you can just start by comparing the last three albums by both artist on concepts, lyrics and production– you’ll be hard press to see that Common at this point is in the lead.

Related posts:

1. Appreciate Greatness For A Change