Nas — King’s Disease III — Album Review
Hip-Hop | Rap
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Nas has had one wild ride with his discography over the past three years. In 2020, we got the first edition of King’s Disease, which in my mind was a very solid rap album of that year. The following year, we had one of my favourite albums of the entirety of 2021 with King’s Disease II, and finally, we now arrive at the third instalment of this trio. It’s name? You guessed it; King’s Disease III.
I honestly didn’t think we would receive this album, even with the rumours floating around that Kings Disease III would imminently release. But as the month November surprisingly continues to show that it is perhaps the best musical month we have had through the entirety of 2022, we finally got it.
The rap artist practically needs no introduction at this point. But to cut a long story short, Nas is one of the true living greats in the Hip-Hop game. And as he has clearly proved in recent memory with this series of albums, he’s showing absolutely no signs of slowing down.
Now to elaborate a little on my personal history of listening to Nas, it was certainly safe to say that I was (once again) late to the party, considering the scope of his discography, dating all the way back to 1994 with the timeless Illmatic. But the first album I properly sat down, listened to, and reviewed, would be his 2018 album NASIR, the eleventh to come to his discography. It was this album (at least in my mind, anyway) that marked the beginning of what I like to call the “modern Nas renaissance”, which was of course followed up by the phenomenal King’s Disease series.
But what made King’s Disease II in particular such a phenomenal album in my view? Well for starters, I think that the underlying message of the King’s Disease series as a whole were best presented through this album. This sentiment and sense of engagement was only boosted further by the incredible and highly soulful samples, courtesy of Hit-Boy (for the most part, I believe). The whole thing just felt so masterfully made when it comes to being an album that blesses the listener with tough love.
And I feel that this is something that does spill onto King’s Disease III as well, perhaps just not in as much of a well-rounded manner. This album seems to favour more dreamy, synth-focussed production rather than the soulfulness on King’s Disease II. I’m still happy with this, don’t get me wrong, although I feel it doesn’t reflect who Nas is quite as well.
Needless to say though, King’s Disease III is even more plentiful as its predecessors when it comes to its tracks. Where the first edition of the series included thirteen tracks, and the second had 15, King’s Disease III has a total of 17 tracks, continuing the apparent tradition of adding 2 songs on each time.
This album certainly has the quality to back up the quantity as well. And while the majority of this album has that synth-focussed production that I mentioned earlier, that does allow for more versatile moods to be enjoyed.
In short, while King’s Disease II still remains my favourite of the three, this album still stands as an incredible way to allegedly conclude the phenomenal series of albums that is King’s Disease.
Favourite Tracks: Hood2Hood | Recession Proof | Serious Interlude | Get Light | Don’t Shoot
Least Favourite Track: 30
Mass Appeal
