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Zero 7
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Hip Hop Is Dead
Generally favorable reviews
Based on 22 critic reviews
How did we calculate this?
Based on 91 votes
Read user comments
Rate this album >
Album Info
Label: Def Jam
Release Date: 19 December 2006
Discs: 1 disc
Genre(s): Rap
Summary
Dr. Dre, Kanye West and will.i.am are among the producers for the rapper's follow-up to 'Street's Disciple,' which marks his first release for Def Jam.
Also By This Artist: God's Son Stillmatic Street's Disciple The Lost Tapes Untitled
Also On The Web: Nas @ Def Jam
What The Critics Said
All critic scores are converted to a 100-point scale. If a critic does not indicate a score, we assign a score based on the general impression given by the text of the review. Learn more...
RapReviews.com
Nas has made a passionate album to reawaken your love of the art and if your heart isn't thumping in your chest by the end then it's not hip-hop that's dead, it's you.
Read Full Review >The Onion (A.V. Club)
It contains a smart, tight, cohesive analysis of where rap went astray, but also the seeds of the genre's rebirth and renewal.
Read Full Review >MSN Consumer Guide (Robert Christgau)
The fun comes easier when he fools around with the title conceit, and even sometimes when he thinks about it.
Read Full Review >Mojo
It is Nas's poetic erudition that makes it a stone cold classic. [Mar 2007, p.100]
Dot Music
Nas's insight, erudition and poetic intensity override all other concerns.
Read Full Review >Village Voice
A Dante-channeling journey through the many diverse facets of hip-hop.
Read Full Review >Prefix Magazine
Hip-Hop Is Dead... brings out the best in the emcee, who might have produced his strongest lyrical performance since Illmatic.
Read Full Review >The New York Times
Here’s the thing about Nas’s old-fashioned approach to hip-hop: It still works.
Read Full Review >Vibe
Disorienting and sometimes brilliant. [Jan 2007, p.109]
Rolling Stone
Nas has always sounded older than his years, but there are moments on his eighth album when he sounds like the lead in the hood version of Grumpy Old Men.
Read Full Review >The Guardian
You don't have to agree with the prognosis (even Nas has a change of heart by the end) to relish the furious eloquence with which it's delivered.
Read Full Review >PopMatters
Nas pushes lyricism and technical virtuosity to the forefront here, stretching both his own boundaries and those around him.
Read Full Review >Pitchfork
More than Illmatic, it represents the real Nas-- not the ideal-- the MC with all the skill, all the rhymes, and all the insight who sabotaged himself with bad decisions.
Read Full Review >Entertainment Weekly
Hip Hop Is Dead is a lot like Nas himself: impossible not to admire, but hard to love.
Read Full Review >Los Angeles Times
Like many of his previous efforts, lyrically and conceptually, it's second-to-none. But musically and in terms of execution, it doesn't always hit the mark.
Read Full Review >Hartford Courant
"Hip Hop Is Dead" feels bloated and a little self-indulgent at 16 songs, not all of which are as essential as the first few, but that doesn't change the legitimacy of the point Nas is trying to make, or the guts he shows in making it.
Read Full Review >Blender
Nas can still dazzle on the mic. [Jan/Feb 2007, p.87]
cokemachineglow
Hip Hop Is Dead’s fruitless and one-dimensional rhetoric is sure to depress the Nas fan more than any of his didactics.
Read Full Review >Stylus Magazine
Nas caps a year of NYC-based disappointments with quite possibly the most crushing one yet.
Read Full Review >Austin Chronicle
With Dr. Dre, Kanye West, and even Jay-Z on its guest list, Hip Hop Is Dead makes for an ample, yet ultimately morbid, party.
Read Full Review >What Our Users Said
The average user rating for this album is 9.0 (out of 10) based on 91 User Votes
Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.
groundfisher gave it an8:
This would get a 9 from me if the production was better. "Hip-hop is Dead" is a celebration of hip-hop. It is a strong album from Nas and the album's title and concept is not really something new, but it signifies a change in content from Nas with less 'gangsta rap' and more good, old fashioned hip-hip. Gangsta rap IS commercialised hip-hop and one of the things that has killed true hip-hop; Nas has got rich off gangsta rap and now laments that hip-hop is dead. That irony is not lost on Nas. In fact, there is humour in this album that isn't evident in many previous albums, with Nas attacking the album's concept from many different viewpoints, even those viewpoints which gently mock his own. I don't really want to go into depth but just to mention something that I feel Nas didn't address. Remembering times past can lapse into pure nostalgia and whilst it's fine to remember past hip-hop artists and recall Main Source's "Breaking Atoms", for example, you also have to remember the bad things. We didn't have ridiculous, commericalised gangasta rap clones 15+ years ago on the charts. Instead we had a complete and utter corporate construct called Vanilla Ice at the top of the charts. MC Hammer was there too. This was during the golden age of hip-hop. The golden age is well and truly over and whilst hip-hop isn't dead, it has just about hit rock bottom. Hopefully Nas isn't the only one who changes direction...
Brannon M gave it a9:
Classic
Ricardo O gave it a10:
in a world full of emptyness, finally someone that can inspire us to improve
Vahe K gave it an8:
Good Album. one great song, the rest of album is ok
Josh T gave it an8:
If any One gave this album less than a 7 or an 8 don't know sh@t, and i read some of y'all comits. Like Jamal S(It lacks a single killer BEAT) People like this just listen to hip-hop because of the beats, they don't read between the lines. I beat this N@g@a this dip-set is hot(they don't be talking bout sh@t) Hip-Hop Is Dead is not a classic but it better than Streets Disiple, Nastrudams, I Am, and I think it better then it was written. Nas may not have the best ear for beats; but pound for pound lyrically there is only one person in the history of the game that even come close to nas and that is the greatest MC of all time Pac. Not Jigga, Not Big, not anyone has the lyrical tale as Nas or Pac. Holla
Mahmoud R gave it a10:
Supreme Lyricism. Dope beats. What more could you ask for?
Cool Jones D. gave it a10:
I absolutely love this album. You all should get it.
