The Rush...

Tuesday
written by JusHH

Nas’ new album is set to drop July 15th and I am really excited to get in the store that Tuesday and cop it. Here’s the problem, as I’m writing this, I’m listening to it and by the time you are reading this post, I would have heard it at least two times. I am still excited to hit the store because I’m a collector and I still appreciate album artwork. But the urgency is no longer there. If I can’t make it on Tuesday, its fine, I can just go Wednesday or Thursday. I’m not saying that having leaked albums are all bad… it did save me from wasting my $10.89 on Curtis last fall. However it does it take the purity out of “Tuesday”. So follow me down memory lane as I take you back eleven years ago and one of my most memorable “Tuesdays”.

I was almost 15 years old and in the 9th grade. I don’t even think I heard of the internet let alone been online downloading music. We only knew an album was coming out if we read it in the Source, saw a commercial on Rap City or saw a sign wrapped around a light pole. The only songs we heard “early” were the official singles and videos. No leaks just anticipation and tons of questions. How many songs were gonna be on the album? I wonder who’s gonna be on the album with him? Yo, you think its gonna be better than his last joint or better than “such and such’s” new album? It was so exciting because it was like Christmas coming early – you couldn’t wait to unwrap it, look inside and see what you got.

Well this Tuesday, was a bit different than all of the others because a few weeks prior, something happened that we thought might jeopardize the album’s release. When we found out the album was finished and was still coming out, the album took on so much of a higher meaning. That Tuesday became more than just a release date, it was an event, a rap holiday if you will. Everyone on my block was talking about it. I had that date marked on my calendar and the money saved up. So when that Tuesday came I couldn’t even pay attention in class, all I could think about was 2:45pm when homeroom ended. As soon as it did, me and my boy hopped on the Q30, got off and walked up Jamaica Ave to Music Factory. I got to the store, went to the desk and said, “yeah, lemme get that new Biggie.”

As soon as I got home, just before ripping off the plastic, I stared at the cover for a few seconds. Thinking how cool Big looked with the all black suit and hat next to the hearse, only to then realize how ominous that photo shoot must have been. I tore off the plastic and that annoying sticky tape (I just hate that stuff) and I held that double CD in my hand. I read over the track listing of both CD’s and I put the first CD into my stereo and zoned out. I loved how the intro literally took over when the first album ended. My neck hurt from head noddin’ to the beat for “Last Days” and “Kick in the Door” I got lost in the amazing stories that “N***as Bleed” and “I Got a Story to Tell” told and couldn’t think that it could get any better.

Then it happened.

I remember reading on the back of the CD that the first song on disc 2 was called “Notorious Thugs” and it was featuring Bone Thugs N Harmony. I was skeptical because I was a fan of Bone and I was going to be mad if they got on the song at hyper speed only to have Big slow the whole song down with his flow. My curiosity made me want to hear that song first but I have to hear the album from start to finish the first time – no skipping or fast forwarding. So I get to the second disk and the beat comes on and I’m sitting on the edge of my bed just waiting. Bone started off the chorus and then Big came on… “Armed and dangerous, ain’t too many that can bang with us, straight up weed no angel dust, label us, notorious…”

OH MY F**KING GOD!!!!!!!! ARE YOU SERIOUS?!?!?!

After catching my breath from screaming and running around my house for 5 minutes, I grabbed my house phone (no celly yet) and called my boy. We just took turns expressing how ridiculous that was and how Big is so “nice” (damn, remember when dudes were “nice”). I made a few more phone calls and then sat back down to finish the album. I rocked out to “Going Back to Cali”, lauged at “Player Hater” and screwed up my face for “Long Kiss Goodnight” as I asked myself, “was that at Pac?” (for the record, I think he was talking about him, you can’t tell me nothing.) Then I heard “You’re Nobody (till Somebody Kills You)” and thought how crazy this song is considering the circumstances. The next day at school all we talked about was how dope that album was and that conversation has continued right up until today as I’m putting the finishing touches on this post.

So as I sit in front of my Dell listening to Nas’ album on my Winamp, I realize that I could have tried to avoid listening to it and waiting for July 15th but it wouldn’t have made a difference. Plus you can’t avoid hearing songs nowadays anyway. It’ll be playing in someone’s car, myspace page, radio and is able to be streamed on just about every Hip-Hop website. Like many things in Hip-Hop, Tuesday won’t ever mean the same that it used to when I was younger. And that’s okay because it makes me appreciate Tuesday March 25, 2007 even more.

Thanks BIG.