Nas Provides a Masterclass in Linguistics on King’s Disease
Because of the unconventional nature of his storytelling, he’s probing his listeners to challenge their preconceived notions of how a story normally unfolds. By doing so, he further engages the audience as they’re now being asked to be an active listener, instead of a mere passerby, as he recounts his memories. This is the case all throughout the album and especially on the song 27 summers, where he quickly raps through his verse,
“Court side Rockets-Warriors Curry up/smokin’ weed in a tux/sippin’ Richard/sitting on Governors isles with all the killers/premier movies with my man Deniro/and Johnny Nunez got all the pictures/black-grown/black-owned/black women is the backbone”
He raps in and out of different scenes making it sound cohesive by using adjectives to begin his bars and thus, connecting the dots. The luxury raps and his usage of anastrophe’s allow him to emphasize the luxurious fruits of his labors, making the listener all the more intrigued.
While listeners may not be able to relate to this sort of high-class lifestyle he’s earned, his usage of metaphors and analogies are enough to make his audience understand his complex world and thoughts regarding it-Take Full Circle for example-
“I talk to my boxing trainer/he’s my logic explainer/conversations through our combinations/he told me stick and move/and different rules apply to different women”
Using an analogy of boxing, he breaks down the complexity of relationships into something as simple, and personal, as boxing. Boxing requires a certain level of mental warfare so training is a must in order to ready yourself for the mental and physical experience that a boxer will face during the match. While you aren’t going to battle, quite the opposite actually, the principle remains the same throughout relationships as in boxing. Whereas analogies liken his complex ideas to understandable concepts, metaphors act as an engagement tool. On All Bad, Nas starts off metaphorically speaking by rapping
“Trophy/arm candy/but I’m better without it/it’s a dub my love/but I gotta reroute it/it’s a lottery/it’s loaded.”
The strength in metaphors lies in the thought-provoking essence of them and Nas has always been one to treat his listeners with raps that stay with the listener long after the song, or album, is finished.
The complex subject matter on this album is broken down masterfully by Nas with the use of anastrophe’s, metaphors, analogies, amongst many other literary devices like wordplay, flashbacks, similes, symbolism, shall I go on? At this point, I’d rather let the listener decide why the album is a masterpiece.
Stream King’s Disease Below: