“This is real rap, what could be better than that?” asks Nas. And knows that many of his listeners will probably reply: “Nothing!” Together with producer DJ Premier, he tries to deliver exactly this “real” hip-hop on LIGHT-YEARS. He hardly leaves out a tried and tested rap narrative: The song “Pause Tapes” is about how Nas produced his first beats in his grandmother’s apartment in the 80s, surrounded by gang crime and drugs, started rapping and thus escaped the misery raging outside.
He became a “junkie”, but – typical Nas metaphor – he was not addicted to narcotics, but solely to the music: “I’m a rap-aholic, only been sober since my last installment / Need music with substance, so it’s abuse they call it.” Finally, on “Writers” he celebrates graffiti culture, pays tribute to the German artist MadC, among others, and recognizes one of many parallels to rap in the hustle after Fame.
You don’t necessarily have to completely accept the nostalgic hip-hop pathos that resonates on all fifteen album songs to still get a lot out of this union of East Coast legends, especially that they don’t allow themselves to be carried away into any embarrassing contortions, but instead pair a modern boom-bap sound with stories from the past. Just real rap.
This review appears in Musikexpress 2/2026.