nas - life is like a dice game -- 1. that scratchy tape recorder intro. "this is nas! queens's finest, right behind us! no doubt, all the time! one love, one life, one king, and that's the king of queens, baby. shoutout to the bridge.... one love!" 2. one of my favorite things about nas is, i think, he sounds like he's-- i'm not sure how to say this. he never sounds effortless, he never sounds like he's not rapping. he sounds like he's in the studio and he's reading his raps. (i have the nas freestyles mixtape by i forget who and it's good but nas is barely on it, he comes in and spits some verse from a mid-album track on it was written and then it's az or mega or some random guy like akinyele filling up the next two minutes) but the effortless thing is the most important. this sounds all effortless (it's weird that the intro is kind of halting and awkward. after he says "shoutout to the bridge" he doesn't know what to say and blurts out "one love" and it's over) and a bunch of other things that nas never is. 3. "you know my name, big nas in the house, yall. on the freestyle tip and when i finish this shit it's sure to be a hit."

nas ft. billy joel - ny state of mind (lights out remix) -- it's kind of corny but i like every single bit of it, the "some folks like to get away, take a holiday from the neighborhood, hop a flight to miami beach or to hollywood but i'm taking a greyhound on the something river line, i'm in a new york state of mind," scratching in the billy joel saying new york again sample, and the cheap sounding drums over the little snip of the billy joel song, and the verse (is from ny state of mind 2 on i am... and is) on some nas doing boring prototypical nas shit, "broken glass in the hallway, bloodstained floors."

nas ft. biggie and pac - purple 2004 -- remember that strolling cool original beat and nas just all like off the top of his head, "the whole city is mine, pretty as dawn / i don't like the way p diddy did shyne with different lawyers / why it's mentioned in my rhymes-- fuck it / it's just the intro, hate it or love it / like it, bump it or dump it / writing across the stomach spells god's son / life is like a jungle something something / habitat of tarzan" and he gets all serious about niggas dying and still haunting they blocks and there's always new cats to take they spots but it's still like you can picture him just waking up and figuring it out in his bright white kitchen, sitting at the table with his notebook and looking out the window. but this is purple 2004, new beat, some nothing/nowhere music class handsound drums that strip the whole thing of all the airiness and replace it with very unpleasant awkward/claustrophobic feeling, a big verse that comes in with coughing and mumbling and instructions on robbing people and reminiscing about his swinger days when he drove an old caddy and junor mafia representing bucktown / mack 11 cocked back niggas better duck down, and a pac verse about not being able to close his eyes and keeping his hand on his gun.

nas ft. freddie foxx - turn off the mics -- i have no idea who freddie foxx is except that his nickname is bumpy knuckles and he's some kind of ultra real dude who can't rap, so nas has some stillmatic mob boss thing for him about chilling in st. barts and murdering snitches and some bizarre out of nowhere shit about having sluts on leashes and watching snuff films and reading the catcher in the rye while listening to bob marley.

nas ft. pitbull - imagine -- man so many of these songs are lame as hell but this is the worst one. it doesn't get worse than this with nas. on an untouched playback of imagine and nas dropping lines like, "imagine we could all get along, won't be long til that day comes / mothers stop cookin, take off your aprons / fathers stop looking at every sports station / take a second and think of every poor nation" and pitbull coming in to steal the whole thing and humiliating him (my first album had no famous guest appearances / the outcome, i'm crowned the best lyricist), "america, the land of the free. america, the land of opportunity. / america, what's the point of having the statue of liberty if you turning immigrants back at sea" and his mouth filling with saliva and little hehes at the ends of his lines.

nas - thief's theme -- it's sort of okay in the recorded off the radio mp3 with the "funkmaster flex says: THIS IS SOMETHING YOU NEED TO HEAR" shit on it and a layer of recording noise and flex and nas feigning astonishment and talking shit over the end of it, "this is real real like street corner play it over fifty times while you in front of the crib on a cassette--" "on a cassette ahahhaha!" "you need a cassette for this one! it's hot 97 funk flex the album street's disciple july 6th" "central park free concert double album" "just get them where you need to get them" "yes sir." and everyone hopes he's got a dozen more of these.