I mean, this is the king of camp and internet memes, building a song around the line, 'I'll treat you like you're dead.'īy wielding uncharacteristic venom and vulnerability, Lil Nas makes a familiar concept feel fresh - and proves, once again, that he's no one-trick pony. Lil Nas is far from the first star to call out exes who come crawling back, or deadbeat relatives who suddenly ask for favors. The cost of fame, especially the many-hued leeches you may find attached, is a well-worn trope in pop music. He's clearly proud of his accomplishments, but when a choir arrives to worship his one-in-a-million success ('Hallelujah! How'd you do it?'), it feels almost sinister - particularly in light of confessions like 'I would've died trying to be here' and 'My momma told me that she loves me, don't believe her.' Paired with an almost harsh beat, the lyrics expose an underbelly of Lil Nas' confident gloss. As opposed to the sunlit revelry of the title track, 'Dead Right Now' is a dusky sort of banger, thick with nostalgia and bittersweet triumph. In a world where too many rappers and personalities are dying early due to health issues, he reflects on being “21 years past the ’27 Club,’” finding a way to survive the streets that raised him and keep his rep as a premier lyricist intact.'Dead Right Now' is the second track on 'Montero.'Īhlgrim: I am surprised and thrilled that Lil Nas has added another song to the crying-on-the-dance-floor canon. He leads off the album with “Speechless,” his testament to his longevity as an emcee. He began to embrace his role as a hip-hop elder statesman on King’s Disease II and continues on that path throughout Magic. Nas plays to his strengths as an artist, sounding as confident and self-assured as he’s ever been and every bit of the verbal assassin he was in the mid-1990s.Īs Nas’ career has progressed, he has spoken more about his shifting position in the hip-hop landscape. There are no cheesy hooks by R&B/pop singers. There are no forced attempts at pop appeal.

It’s a logical extension of the first two installments of King’s Disease, touching on many similar themes as explored on those albums, but with a sharper focus.Įven though Magic is not Illmatic (1994) by any stretch of the imagination, of all of his projects released in the past quarter-century, his approach here is similar to his seminal debut. The project, released with little warning on Christmas Eve, is their finest collaboration to date. There must be something about Hit-Boy’s beats that really inspires Nas, as Magic comes sixteen months after King’s Disease (2020) and a mere five months post- King’s Disease II.

Nas new album review