I just bought the NAS album, and honestly it is very good start to finish. Lyrically he is still on point, and the majority of his songs have a point to them, something that can’t be said for 90% of the other hip hop artists out there.
Another thing, people need to stop comparing everything Nas does to Illmatic. Illmatic was Illmatic, and yes it was good. The rest of the stuff is different. Nas has evolved way past Illmatic, and I’m glad he changes it up. I’d probably hate him if everything sounded like Illmatic.