Street's Disciple Review

Nobody asked for a ninety minute Nas record built on live bass, horns and drum kits, and he made one anyway. The gamble half pays. When it works it works in ways nothing else in his catalog does. Bridging the Gap puts him on a blues shuffle beside his father, and the family history is the song rather than the decoration. Just a Moment is a roll call of the dead delivered with none of the usual swagger.

Sekou Story tells a full crime narrative across two voices and holds the thread. These Are Our Heroes goes after athletes and entertainers who trade dignity for access, and it is the sharpest cultural argument he had made to that point. Getting Married is a rapper writing about wedding nerves, which practically nobody in the genre was doing.

The problem is arithmetic. Twenty five tracks means a dozen ideas that would have been cut from a leaner record, several extended sex songs that stall the momentum completely, and a second disc that asks for patience it does not repay. The band gives everything a warm room sound but also flattens the dynamics. Trim a third of this and it is a career highlight. At full length it is an admirable slog.