“Project Windows” is a definitive Nas offering, as he reflects on the madness which shaped his perspective with a detached, yet intricate awareness that’s alarming considering the subject matter. Despite its denunciation, Nastradamus contains one of Nas’ best creations. But what critics (professional and self-appointed) forget or just don’t acknowledge is that there are good-even great-songs on this album. The worst song on Nastradamus is “Big Girl,” a poorly-conceived idea that violates the Stylistics’ original which inspired it. “Nastradamus” borrows the same J.B.’s sample EPMD used on “Let the Funk Flow” and might’ve been better received if Nas didn’t try to sing the hook. Nas and Ginuwine were a strange pairing on the former, and Timbaland’s production would’ve been better suited for a different artist. “You Owe Me,” which everyone references first, and “Nastradamus,” the lead single, fall into the first category. Of the 15 tracks, two are poor and one is flat-out terrible. There are bad songs on Nastradamus, but fewer than acknowledged. Writing for Rolling Stone, Kevin Powell said Nas had “gone from being a leader of the new school to being a follower.” He closed his review with the assertion that the album “offers little in the way of prophecy, and even less for the next chapter in hip-hop.” Other critics found the album to be simply ordinary, but, of course, there were also unfavorable reviews. “Amid inner-city symphonics, blaxploitation wahwah guitars, soul vocalizing, and Toto samples, Nas raps tales of betrayal, paranoia, honor, and redemption that would give Scarface pause.” “On his second album of 1999, Nastradamus, this gangsta griot balances apocalyptic boho poetry and roughneck gun talk with a sniper’s precision and a philosopher’s depth,” Matt Diehl wrote for Entertainment Weekly, which graded the album A.
In fact, it wasn’t even universally-panned-the reception was mixed. Nastradamus isn’t a good album for an artist of Nas’ caliber and is definitely the weakest link in his catalog, but it isn’t the universally-panned abomination that most make it out to be. The short, difficult-to-accept answer, is no.