Originally Posted by Qwertyy

Nas & Damian Marley - Distant Relatives

I haven't listened to much post-2000s Nas, so I went into this knowing very little of what he would bring to the table. I can certainly respect some of his earlier works, Illmatic and It Was Written in particular, but his style often only allows for me to listen to 3 or 4 tracks before growing bored of him.

On Distant Relatives, Nas teams up with reggae artist Damian Marley to create a project that is quite far removed from Nas' early material. In a lot of ways, the collaboration worked well. Nas' long ago stale 90s NYC street style production was traded in for a more dancehall/reggae infused approach, and with Damian Marley around to handle the hooks, Nas was able to step away from the weakest elements of song writing.

Now while all of that is fine and dandy, the music itself failed to make all too much of an impression me. It lacked in consistency, the track listing was a mix-match of songs that I thought were decent and others that shouldn't have made their way onto the finished project, especially the opening track. It also feels to me like this happened a little too late in both of their careers. Was their really a market for reggae in 2010? I know Drake is doing the whole dancehall thing now, but he kinda sells himself. Hearing this just feels like two artists decided to smash their styles together, without compromising on a style that would highlight the best of one another.

It wasn't bad, but it wasn't memorable or entertaining enough for me to call it good either. It was just flat out okay. I can understand the appeal Ki, and I would chalk this one up to just a difference in taste rather than the album being good or bad, but it just didn't resonate all that much with me.

Frowndad gets the first point as Meatraffle remains as the top album.