Various Artists: Nas & Ill Will Records Presents: Queensbridge's Finest

Ever since the release of his universally acclaimed 1994 debut, Illmatic, Nas has been hip-hop's Jekyll and Hyde, a profoundly gifted lyricist whose oversized talent is matched only by his propensity for wasting it. From track to track, it's hard to tell which Nas will show up: Will it be the eloquent hip-hop poet of Illmatic, or the post-Illmatic hack perpetually willing to dumb down his lyrics for the sake of platinum sales and iced-out, heavily rotated videos Nas the social realist pops up throughout Queensbridge's Finest, the first release from his new Ill Will Records label, but the compilation itself takes its cues from Nas the mercenary, thugged-up sellout, resulting in a frustratingly mediocre album dotted with flashes of brilliance. Ostensibly a celebration of Queensbridge, a Long Island housing project that has spawned generations of hip-hop royalty, Finest finds QB legends like a scene-stealing Roxanne Shanté sharing mic time with current QB ringers (Nas, Mobb Deep, CNN) and a slew of newcomers. Unfortunately, nearly all of the latter (Infamous Mobb, Bravehearts, the amusingly named Millennium Thug) don't stray from the Nas/Mobb Deep axis, inheriting their mentors' tiresome commitment to "representing" and "keeping it real," but little of their gift for smart lyrics and vivid storytelling. Nas may see the upstarts on Finest as QB's future, but their thug personas seem stuck in the past, particularly during a pair of groan-inducing covers. "Da Bridge 2001" revamps MC Shan's QB-pride anthem to little discernable effect, while the N.W.A homage "Straight Outta QB" feels meaningless and out of place on an album so steeped in New York pride. Nas' evocative imagery and novelistic detail hint at a far more ambitious and compelling undertaking, a sort of oral history of the neighborhood as seen through the eyes of the rough-hewn wordsmiths who made it out alive. But such flashes are few and far between, lost in all the blandly professional production, uninspired lyrics, and tiresome posturing that have become Queensbridge's contemporary trademark.