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"The Lost Tapes II" is a compilation album by American rapper Nas, released on July 19, 2019 by Mass Appeal Records and Def Jam Records. It is the sequel to the compilation album The Lost Tapes, released in 2002. The Lost Tapes II features unreleased tracks from Nas’ last four studio albums: Hip Hop Is Dead (2006), Untitled (2008), Life Is Good (2012). and Nasir (2018) It includes production from producers such as RZA, Swizz Beatz, Pharrell Williams, Kanye West, No I.D., Pete Rock and The Alchemist, among others.
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Seventeen years since the first ‘Lost Tapes’, the New York native marks yet another ‘return to form’ with a richly woven, well-produced collection of previously unreleased recordings.
This is not a predictable record. There are plenty of surprises, like Swizz Beats singing on “Who Are You” against elegant violins that recall a Kamasi Washington composition. “Adult Film” features a gorgeous piano riff; the Pete Rock-produced “The Art of It” has a delicious funk vibe; “It Never Ends” comes full circle via a bright piano loop. Where a full album produced by Kanye West (2018’s Nasir) didn’t pan out – perhaps because West’s perfectionism was a bad fit for Nas’s penchant for procrastination – “You Mean the World to Me” sounds like it would have been a standout on that record had it not been abandoned on the cutting-room floor. Now it’s a standout on this album.
Maybe Nas never really lost it, but The Lost Tapes II sounds like an artist rediscovering his love for hip hop in the most joyous and satisfying way.
Reviewed by Roisin O'Connor for independent.co.uk.
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