Hi, everyone. Lighthony Yearstano here, the internet's busiest music nerd, and it's time for a review of the new Nas and DJ Premier record, Light-Years.

Legendary Queens rapper Nas. I believe in the totality of his discography, this is like his 18th, 19th studio album? It's not to be counted normally among his usual solo studio albums because it is officially a collaboration album with the incomparable, with the influential, DJ Premier, a New York producer and DJ, one-half of Gang Starr. And though he's not a lyricist and a rapper in the way that Nas is by reputation, you could argue he's every bit as much a pioneer as Nas is when it comes to the history and rubric of hip hop. In fact, their respective success and careers are pretty much intertwined as DJ Premier played a pretty pivotal role in some of the greatest beats on Nas' breakthrough game-changing classic album, Illmatic.

So of course with that record gaining the status that it has over the decades of its existence, any time these two have crossed over once again, it's always been cause for celebration and a reminder of the legacy they've created together. And 2025 for Nas has really been all about legacy, not just the legacy of his own artistry, but hip hop broadly, which is why through his label, he has been on this crazy run of new album releases, dropping posthumous and new projects from the likes of Raekwon, Ghostface Killah, Big L, De La Soul too, who, handily, in my opinion, had the best record of this new run of mass appeal releases.

Now, with all of these albums having dropped, Nas has seen fit to essentially tie it all up with a bow on this collaboration project with DJ Premier because a full tracklist of songs, just between the both of them and a handful of collaborators, is going to predictably grab the attention of hip hop heads across the globe. I should also note for greater context, this record is not just simply two legends returning after lying dormant for years, and years, and years. DJ Premier has been providing impressive beats for a number of new artists and older artists, too, putting out new projects. Though no catalog is perfect, the guy's skills seem still pretty sharp into the 2020s. Even Nas himself has not really slowed down in terms of output. Some of his most impressive records ever have been dropped in the last five years, specifically his collaborations with producer Hit-Boy on King's Disease, One, Two, and Three.

I went into this new record wondering how much better of an experience I could possibly have given that Nas is working with somebody who not only has just about as much experience as him, but someone who he has a lot of history with personally and creatively, too.

However, I'm sad to report that while Light-Years does have its share of highlights, it's got a lot of weak moments, too, especially in the first leg. It's opening track, "My Life Is Real", for lack of a better term, kind of feels like listening to an ad. Literally, like an unskippable advertisement I have to sit through in order to hear the rest of the record. When I say ad, it just feels like it's merely here to promote the run that Nas and Mass Appeal have been on as of late, and it doesn't do so in a way that's all that creative or is appealing as a song.

Meanwhile, the following track, "GiT Ready", feels no less promotional and is packed with loads of shout outs to crypto and AI companies, I guess, as a means of Nas flexing that he's ahead of the curve when it comes to having his finger on the pulse of tech. It's just hard to imagine anyone vibing to this who isn't like a men's rights, red pill type, podcaster. Unfortunately, as much as my mouth was watering at the title "NY State of Mind Pt. 3", this track has to be one of Nas' least interesting portrayals of New York, even if the beat on this track from Premiere is a little bit more like it. Definitely the best production on the album so far.

And sadly, the following "Welcome To The Underground" feels almost just as much as out of touch or just not really delivering what the title promises, especially with bars like, "digging up termites and baby mice?" It's not very interesting imagery. The messaging feels so out of touch because much of the time, I feel like being underground usually entails being subversive to some degree, going against the grain, and there's just not really a lot here, aesthetically or topically, that offers that. I just don't really see what's so underground about it, especially with a pretty active, new, young underground in hip hop thriving today.

Now, it's around the midpoint of the record that things do pick up a little bit. "Madman", while one of the shorter tracks here is very simple but effective, really the first song on the project I wouldn't mind playing again. As overly meta as a song like "Pause Tapes" is, it's actually really endearing. It's a lyrical stroll down memory lane of Nas' and DJ Premier's first experiences making their own beats, putting them to tape by literally catching certain breaks and beat sections off of records they were playing and then just recording that into a tape player over and over and over and over. It's stuff like this that's really one of the best things Nas does at this point in his career, really time traveling back to the early days of hip hop and making you relive those moments with him in a way that's so vivid and captivating.

I also love the homage he plays on the track "Writers", which is this huge ode to taggers and graffiti artists, listing out some of the biggest and best by name from the beginning to the end of the track, mentioning international writers, mentioning artists whose work transcended the graffiti medium entirely, like Keith Haring and Basquiat. Graffiti is obviously a medium that you could never encapsulate fully into one single song, but it's pretty thorough for what it is. And at least in me, instills an excitement and willingness to look into it further because he sounds so excited about it on the track.

I love Nas' musings on fatherhood and boyhood on the song "Sons", the mindset and heart that he describes that has to go into raising a young boy. It's legitimately moving; however, I feel like the album's focus and quality drops off from here once again, especially on "Nasty Esco Nasir", which is this concept track where Nas is playing into these different, warring alter egos within him. But in terms of background and belief system, there's not really all that much separation between them, at least not so much that you think they would be killing each other. For sure, there's a 'there', there, but it's just odd for the track to just gradually devolve into what feels like a Shark Tank pitch in the final verse. Again, it's better self-promotion than it is song craft.

On "My Story, Your Story", we get some cool chemistry with AZ, but it's nothing we haven't already heard when AZ came through on the first King's Disease album. The track "Bouquet", while not a favorite song here, is a seriously commendable moment with Nas giving flowers to this new generation of ladies who are making their way in hip hop right now, as well as paying tribute to the female MCs who paved the way before them.

I will say, by the end of the song, it does turn a little bit more into a laundry list than I would like, but it's still cool to hear him shouting out the likes of Doja Cat and Little Simz. In my mind, it's a necessary torch passing moment in an age where there is a lot of tension, and back and forth, around the misogyny issue when it comes to new hip hop artists and listeners.

The track "Junkie" is an odd one for sure. I mean, obviously, I and everyone watching this channel is familiar with the idea of a music junkie, somebody being a music addict. That's the lyrical angle Nas is taking with this track. But I will say, the thoroughness with which he tries to paint his love of music from the standpoint of somebody who is literally addicted to it in the same way somebody would be crack or heroine, by the end of the song, the framing does just feel a bit weird and awkward. I could give the song an A for effort, though.

Unfortunately, from here, the final moments on the album are really nothing to write home about. In fact, the last song on the record is so inconspicuous in terms of its flows and its beat, at least a few times over while spinning this album, I barely even noticed it, like, replaying back into itself on the first song. That's how unambitious and bland of a closer it is. As much as I do lyrically appreciate the idea of Nas effectively living out a new era here in his career and certainly having cause for celebrating right now, not only because of how well he's generally doing personally, and artistically, but just all the effort he's put into keeping his generation of artists thriving, in a way, with this latest run of releases, which I think is pretty pivotal, considering that hip hop recently just turned 50, an anniversary that he seems to take very seriously.

No doubt at this point, Nas' love of hip hop, of New York, of music in general, it's unquestionable. But still, that's not enough to counterbalance the glaring issues on this album, many of which I think, revolve around Nas and Primo, resting on their laurels a bit here, and not so much challenging themselves and really taking the easy route instead on some of these tracks. Well, actually a great deal of them, in my opinion, which is why I'm feeling a light five on this album.

Anthony Fantano, Nas, DJ Premier, Forever.