More successful is the Busta Rhymes-featuring "Fried Chicken", which might actually be the record's strongest cut, but it doesn't take the expected route of cultural subtext, instead working the blues trope of female/food personification. Speaking of rhymin' for the sake of riddlin'- "The Fox has a Bushy tail/ And Bush tells lies and Fox trots, so I don't know what's real." Which essentially means nothing. The main difference is that "Channel Zero" risked alienation by confronting its target head on, whereas when it comes to preaching to the choir and picking easy fights, Nas has no problem being the Morgan Spurlock of this rap shit. Peep "Sly Fox", a concerted attempt to be the "She Watch Channel Zero?!" for conservative news zombies, right down to its steady guitar chug. Note the distinction: Either he's missing obvious targets or hitting ones not worth aiming at. On Untitled you get to decide whether you prefer Nas thoroughly exploring half-assed concepts or half-assedly exploring thorough concepts. And what about the hallucinogenic "Esco Let's Go", where he fantasized about " hood movies like Posse and Five Heartbeats" while summoning Elizabeth Taylor for career advice? Instead, we get an elderly German rhyming "knotty head" with "Nazi sled" ("America"), "Breathe" and its boring consumption rhymes ("First I cop/ Then I yacht"- do go on!), and the gutless "Make the World Go Round" in which Nas, Chris Brown, and Cool & Dre top even Fat Joe in terms of trend-hopping insincerity, toasting to ballers, gangstas, hustlas, and the very same ringtone rappers he was willing to throw under the bus just two years ago when it was convenient for his public image. But now, how is Nas going to come off like he intended Untitled to be an unflinching look at race relations and yet somehow leave off the track he did with stic.man? Worse still, the righteous message of "Association" (strength through interaction with those who inspire you) is forsaken for the stilted, spoken-word ramblings of "Testify", in which Nas accuses white downloaders of being unwilling to "ride" with him for whatever reason. The most frustrating thing is that this could have been a solid record. At least Nastradamus was up front about being a shitty crossover bid. (See the claim on "Hero": "Try telling Bob Dylan, Bruce, and Billy Joel they can't sing what's in they soul/ So Untitled it is/ I never changed nothing.") Whatever the unfettered vision for the record, through masterful PR work, Nas has given ample reason for listeners to blame everyone but himself for his most cynical and arguably worst album yet. Whether Nas intended to actually follow through with his incendiary, original album title, he's been treating his own self-fulfilling martyrdom as the record's main goal.
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