NAS The Lost Tapes (Sony) Rating: NNN Rating: NNN
Having tried and failed for almost a decade to recapture the loose-limbed flow of his classic Illmatic debut, Nas returns to the source with this collection of outtakes and mixed tape exclusives from the "good old days." There's nothing here as devastating as The World Is Yours, but tracks like Purple and Black Zombie are surprising returns to form and worthy of being dug up, in part because he gets back to the introspective rhymes that initially set him apart from the rest of the thug set. It's not a second classic, but at least there are no references to Nas Escobar.