The Lost Tapes 2 Review

The first Lost Tapes worked because the songs came from three albums made inside four years, so it sounded like a record. This one reaches back across more than a decade and several versions of Nas, and it sounds like a folder. The beats come from Kanye West, Pharrell, RZA, Swizz Beatz and Statik Selektah among others, which should be a strength and is instead the problem: no two consecutive songs agree on what they are.

The rapping is not the issue and never is. Jarreau of Rap, built around an Al Jarreau sample, and the Kanye-produced No Bad Energy are genuinely good, and Queens Wolf and Beautiful Life hold up. Around them are songs that sound distracted, which is the word most of the reviews reached for, and a running time that would not survive a serious edit.

A C is where the consensus landed and it is right. Nas at his most ordinary is still a better rapper than most people at their best, and that is a compliment about him rather than about this record.