Nitro

:glasses:

Eh I'd tend to disagree. MF Doom has a very off-beat style and flow, and he's definately not everyone's cup of tea, but I do think he's a sound lyracist. Just very, very different.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V9UNHHtIgiw One of my favorite songs/freestyles of all-time from my 2nd favorite MC of all-time. Damn shame he died so young.

He just hit a 3...when he's got his feet set, he's a pretty decent spot-up shooter. I don't know why, but I think the Lakers are gonna blow this one open in the 2nd quarter. The Jazz started off very well but the game is still tied up. Just a feeling.

Ehhh...except for 'Black Girl Lost,' I just don't really see it too much. I mean to an extent most songs Nas writes, from Illmatic on have a slightly to noticable racial tone, but that comes with the territory of coming from the projects and being a true poet who tries to convey the emotions of living in that environment through his music. I don't consider It Was Written to be a statement of anything in particular, just that bridge between Illmatic Nas and the Firm Nas. Nah, but I'll check it out if I got the dough. I also want to read that book "How To Rap" that is highlighted on Nas' Wikipedia page under the musical style heading. Looks very interesting.

It Was Written was the bridge between Illmatic, a style in which he talked about life on the streets and visions of being a ganagster, and his B.S that he did with the Firm, which was him acting and talking like a gangster which is the best diss against Nas in 'The Takeover' by Jay-Z. It Was Written was NOT made to be a political statement...at all. Nas didn't really get into political rap until Hip Hop Is Dead. Untitled subject matter is noteworthy, and some of the points he brings up are very thought-provoking...but his flows, rhymes, rhyme schemes and production choices killed it. Even though you can argue Nas' subject matter from It Was Written (which IMO was a similar but more mature version of Illmatic sprinkled in with a few new ideas), his actual MC skills were a LOT sharper and more consistent throught it than it was on Untitled.

It Was Written was his worst album...really?!? Wow. There is not one song on Untitled, except MAYBE 'Queens Get the Money' that is a better song than 'I Gave You Power', 'Shootouts', 'If I Ruled the World', 'Affirmative Action', 'Take It In Blood', 'Black Girl Lost', 'The Message', or 'Street Dreams'. I don't know how you can even argue that. I understand that everyone has personal preference, but lyrically Unittled wasn't even CLOSE to It Was Written (or Illmatic, Stillmatic, God's Son, Lost Tapes, and soon to be Distant Relatives). And I didn't mention Live at the BBQ or Back to the Grill because they really weren't great songs. His verses were legendary and that made those songs relatively famous, but overall they weren't great songs.

There's 2 things I'm looking for in this game- Will Utah come out with the attitude that they can actually win this series and start off on fire? And if the Lakers build a decent lead, can they sustain or even increase the lead throughout the game? Should be entertaining regardless.

Yet another person that doesn't mention It Was Written. Easily one of the most underrated albums of all-time because it came directly after Illmatic. IMO his 2nd best album. And I forgot to mention before, The Lost Tapes, even though it wasn't really an album, had a few classics ('Purple', 'Doo Wrags', 'Black Zombis' to name a few). And also, Nas has had more guest appearances on great rap songs than Jay-Z. 'Mo' Money Mo' Murder' with AZ, 'Verbal Intercourse' with Raekwon, 'Road to Zion' with Damian Marley, and the list goes on.

Damn, I just got home and went on Yahoo and on the front page of the NBA section it said Howard was dominating so far, so I was expecting maybe a 20-25pt lead. But 93-53 halfway through the 4th? Ouch.

I know what you're saying and agree to an extent, as he was definately the most influential rapper ever from the standpoint of getting messages and emotion across. With that said, he just didn't have the lyrical ability as a few other top MC's do (that is not to say he didn't have lyrical talent, he was an amazing lyracist). And the one other problem he had is that he never made a truly classic album that was great to amazing end-to-end. All Eyez On Me was terrific, but being a double-disc hurt it. That is why I love Illmatic, Blackstar, Enter the Wu-Tang, Doe or Die...all were relatively short but every song is very high quality. Even though I like 2Pac better than all those rappers on those albums except Nas, it kind of hurts his case a bit.

I'm a huge Nas fan and agree he's the greatest rapper of all time, but I Am, Hip Hop Is Dead, Streets Disciple and Untitled were all mediocre to crap (I HATE Streets Disciple, and being a double-disc makes it even worse). And how could you leave out It Was Written? Top to bottom that's his 2nd best album IMO.

It's ridiculous. It's stupid. It's retarded. It's offensive. And I can't stop playing it back. Amazing.

I think the game you're thinking of was game 1. I know what you're saying, but the difference between Wade and James in that scenario is that LeBron is much better if he has to give up the ball when he gets across half-court at getting the ball back in a different position where he can do damage. When Wade gets doubled that early, he gives up the ball and just stands there as his teammates scramble. LeBron will set picks in a pick and roll with Williams, and gets position elbow extended about 20ft out where he can attack. The Cavs also have far more offensive threats and shooters than Miami did, so it's gonna be harder for the Celtics to go through with the same gameplan and have the same success. And they can't let James off scoring the ball like Wade went off in the first round.

That's the key right there. Against this Celtic team, he is the only matchup offensively the Cavs can exploit. I know he like to start off passive to get his teammates in a rythym, but the Celtics matchup too well for the Cavs. I don't expect LeBron to average 38/8/8 like he did against the Magic last year, but he needs to have a similar mindset and hope the talent they built around him is improved enough to handle a similar type of series.

The whole point of what Riley is trying to do is have flexibility, and he's succeeded. But I think it'd be a mistake to completely blow everything they've created the last 2 years. There are some bright spots and areas of which if they keep intact, could really help them out the next few years.

I didn't give you conditionals regarding AI...I acknowledged he was a pretty good playmaker, but his overall body of work shows he was inefficient in that regard. Not only did I use stats, but I explained why. Just like I explained why LBJ is a better playmaker than Kobe on top of the overwhelming statistics that prove the same. I never said Kobe shouldn't have passed to Kwame, but we all know he has stones for hands, so don't throw bullet passes to him. I didn't say only Butler and Odom were sufficient enough, but Kobe also had far more 3pt shooters than LeBron back when LeBron first came up (which you consider to be the primary source of his assists) and I proved that with undeniable statistics. As for Atkins handling the ball and his assists, it doesn't excuse the inefficiency of Kobe's passing numbers, and as I summed it up before...if Atkins was on a team with LeBron, do you think he'd be doing nearly as much ballhandling? My biggest problem with your arguements, and most Lakers fans for that matter, is that when Kobe is not proficient in a certain regard when comparing him to another player, there are always excuses and conditionals. His teammates didn't do this, Phil didn't do that, he had this injury, he's primarily a shooter so 'enter certain stat where he is deficient', etc... And sometimes those excuses are completely valid, but the problem is that you don't give the other player the same considerations. For example to use Kobe's teammates as the primary excuse for his 4+ TO's (which IMO are inexcusable if you are going to average only 6APG and not constantly get to the rim), yet ignore and even over-inflate the offensive albatross LeBron had his first few years is just biased and completely misguided. But I am glad you stopped this debate though, it was getting tiring lol.

I think the best fit will largely be dependant on who is on the roster next season. If it's mostly young talent that Spoelstra has helped groom, I think Spoelstra might be the better fit. That is NOT to say he is a better coach...not even remotely. But I don't think Riley has the patience at this point to build a contender from a coaching perspective if the team has many of the same faces from last year. For instance, I think if Beasley is to grow, it's going to be under Spoelstra. Under Riley he'll be in the doghouse real quick. And if you guys are to keep Beasley, it will be important that he gets his PT and is given the freedom and proper guidance.

I'm also going with Nas. No one has been so successful with so many different styles and subject matter, and he's also one of the most creative rapper of all-time (Rewind, I Gave You Power, etc..).

This is a problem for Cleveland. Even though their home record doesn't show it this season, winning up in Boston's gonna be a [expletive].

Infinite was most certainly Eminem. It was a glorified demo of him trying to find the right style that fits him. It was a low-budget album that was very simple and just Em playing with lyrics in battle-rap style. It had little substance. 3 years later when the SSLP came out you can see he used similar word-play but his creativity and story-telling was light-years ahead of what you see on Infinite. He didn't play with words just to play with words...everything was for the purpose of conveying some kind of message or story (let me just say- the SSLP is NOT one of my favorite albums of all-time, but Brain Damage is one of my favorite songs of all-time). And yes, Illmatic was the best LP of all-time IMO.

I know Nas did not jack Rakim, but if you're gonna say Em jacked anyone, then you'd have to say the same thing about Nas (and hundreds of other rappers). My point being is that no rapper has a completely original style...they all use different usages of other rappers before them, apply it to their style and create something totally new. That's what Nas did, that's what Eminem did. If you are gonna say Eminem jacked anyone, give specific examples or else your arguement means nothing.

First off if you're gonna quote an article and say the author '[expletive]ted on us' then you better be ready to back up his POV. Secondly, every great rapper has used the tools they learned from other rappers before them. If you're going to say Eminem jacked most MC's, then you have to say Nas jacked Rakim, Papoose jacked Kool G Rap, and it goes on and on. I will say, though, that Eminem has always had one of the most unique rap styles and flows out there. No one is better with wordplay and using the pronunciation of words to advantage than Em. Some said Em's flow and style in Infinite jacked Nas and AZ, but I really don't see it at all.

You said- Your criticism of those verses and his Despicable freestyle (not a real freestyle, just battle-rap Eminem as well) should apply to Infinite just as much if not even more. If you are going to make me quote you, please quote me where I said Infinite was all battle rap. I didn't. I said it was largely battle rap, and I stand by that. Even in songs like Tonite, where he keeps a certain tone and the chorus conveys a message, the actual verses are pure battle rap style. Much like his Drop the World and Forever verses.

That's strange considering a few days ago you were saying how you don't like Eminem's battle rap style, yet Infinite is largely pure battle rap (Infinite, 313, Open Mic, and even some of the other songs with more direction had that same style).