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Joined 13 days ago
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Cake day: February 18th, 2026

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  • Counterpoint: intervention exists on an multi-dimensional axis with different causes, methods of intervening, and potential outcomes. I don’t want to assign moral equivalence to intervention in the Rwanda genocide (morally justified, but didn’t happen) vs. American involvement in the libration of Europe from Nazi Germany (morally justified, did happen) and the Vietnam War (morally very dodgy, took place nonetheless)


  • Money is basically the ring from Lord of the rings. You can’t have it without it changing you. I’ve had the dubious pleasure of knowing a great many millionaires and they’re all miserable bastards pretending that they’re not. Their families hate them, most of them are alcoholics and drug addicts. They hate themselves even more and their money doesn’t mean anything to them so they use it to impress others or hurt them, just so they can feel something. It’s all a disgustingly wasteful, tragic act.

    Money, like all abstractions, inherently alienates us from human essence. It’s the price we pay for a prosperous society that functions at scale and efficiency. A Faustian bargain of sorts.



  • Oh man, that is tough to put in words, but let me try. First of all, the lyricism. The way Nas rhymed and structured his verses was practically unheard of. Rakim could do it, Big Daddy Kane could do it. Not many others. So just in terms of rhyming skill and storytelling, he was up there. It was also one of the first (cohesive) street albums, with Nas just acting as the observer, with vivid storytelling about what he saw around him. You can clearly hear his influence in Mobb Deep’s albums, for example.

    Musically, it is quintessentially 90s East Coast rap, and it came out at a time where the focus was more on the West Coast (think NWA, Snoop Dogg). It has a cohesive sound despite having many different producers (Pete Rock, Premier, Large Professor, etc) on the album, something that wasn’t really done before that time.

    Also, there’s not a single bad track on the album. 10 tracks, no filler.