There's not much out of the ordinary here: the songs included are all among the MC's most popular and feature the appropriately well-known guest stars ( Diddy, when he was Puff Daddy, on "Hate Me Now" and R. The in-demand Cee-Lo Green adds his distinctive vocals to the spooky "Less Than an Hour" (which also can be found on the Rush Hour 3 soundtrack), and even the Chris Webber-produced "Surviving the Times," on which Nas raps about his life and his experiences making music, is well done, though not particularly inventive or unique. Its absurd how good Nas is 30 years into the game, but yea if he had this in his bag then oh my lord, it would be like if MJ had Kyries handle. Kendrick has this balance down perfectly in how he can make something so fun like King Kunta while also being Nas lyrical heir.
2006's Hip Hop Is Dead is left out here, but there are two new songs, neither of which is as good as "Life's a Bitch" or even "Street Dreams," but both of which are still pretty fun. Plenty of lame beats out there getting radio play. The aptly titled Greatest Hits does just that, tracing his career chronologically, from the aforementioned Illmatic (and it makes sense that there are four tracks from that album - the most of any - included) to Street's Disciple (which only boasts one, "Bridging the Gap"). People were still extremely familiar with every album but the first one.īeyoncé pulled after her ubiquitous peak and therefore when she went back to streaming everywhere albums like lemonade suffered because only fans had truly discovered them.Already considered one of hip-hop's great MCs, a claim made even more believable by the fact that he's able to continue to release relevant, often controversial, material - material that, while perhaps not as great as what was on his debut, Illmatic, is still interesting and intelligent and generally pretty decent - Nas has been due for a true greatest-hits collection for a while now. (Her least streamed album is also her only album with no top ten hits, her debut). So when they both came back, people were familiar with Taylor’s singles and catalog and came back for their bad blood, blank space, shake it off, style, we are never getting back together, and yada. Vs Beyoncé pulling at a time where you would maybe hear one single off the album. Even without streaming people who still tuned into radio we’re hearing SEVEN songs off that album. Taylor pulled at her most ubiquitous (on the radio) moment. So yes, pulling from streaming/exclusivity hurt both of them but it hurt Beyoncé much more. One top ten single (formation) and then nothing else impacts out of her audience. Then lemonade followed and the same thing happened. You had to be in self titled’s target audience to have really heard the album. But before I followed her All I ever heard was drunk in love, nothing else impacted the general population or hit the top 20.
Then she released self titled, and fuck that album is GREAT. In fact I was unaware of any singles off this album until after i started following Beyoncé (other than run the world, and I honestly didn’t love the song). This is like swift with folklore/evermore which are not general public albums like 1989 where everyone and their mom knows the songs but they’re still extremely commercially successful)Ĥ spawned ZERO top ten singles. This is in contrast to Beyoncé who became exclusive after her peak popularity with the general public (she was still fucking KILLING the numbers game, but everything after I am Sasha Fierce did better with her fans and her target audience rather than just the generalized population. She then re-added her catalog to streaming BEFORE reputation which was less ubiquitous. All seven of the singles hit the top twenty and the vast majority hit the top ten and became radio staples that year. The point being even though it wasn’t on streaming you were still hearing the music. But before that I had heard and been aware of love story and you belong with me and mine and I knew you were trouble and we are never getting back together and even a few more because her music was constantly on the radio.Įven 1989 which was the era she ended up pulling streaming in was her biggest, seven singles three number ones, it was only the second album the whole decade to spawn five or more top tens. Taylor I didn’t start following until 1989. If you didn’t follow her you wouldn’t hear the music or form a connection to lemonade. Like I didn’t follow Beyoncé at the time and the only song I ever heard was formation like twice on the radio. Taylor pulled albums with massive general population penetration. 07 Black Girl Lost (Album Version) 08 You Owe Me (Instrumental) 09 K-I-SS-I-N-G. God I’m so sorry this is a BOOK but I think it accurately describes why Taylor suffered less from her pull