Nasir Jones is only 33, but he’s already sounding like an old pro growing increasingly out of touch with what once made him great. He had the misfortune of releasing a classic debut, “Illmatic,” in 1994, and has been struggling to follow it up ever since. One of the most agile emcees ever, Nas has consistently failed to come up with material and beats to match his formidable skills while pandering to mainstream radio with ill-advised samples from the likes of Kenny Loggins, Tears for Fears and Eurythmics. On his ninth album, Nas re-enters the arena with his most highly hyped album in years, and it recently debuted at No. 1. Yet once again the material falls short of the high expectations. Collaborations with high-profile producers such as Kanye West (“Still Dreaming”) and his old rival Jay-Z (“Black Republican”) are solid but not particularly inspired. When he tries to spice up the narrative in “Who Killed It?” by imitating film-noir star Edward G. Robinson, he sounds silly. On the title song, he rhymes over the stodgy proto-metal riffs of Iron Butterfly’s “Inna Gadda Da Vida” while lamenting that “Everybody sound the same, commercialize the game.” Is there anything more tiresome than the elder statesman who lectures his fans about how the good old days are gone for good? Yes, hip-hop isn’t what it used to be. But then neither is Nas.
