Not only did Nas drop potent stick-to-your-rib singles like “Daughters,” “The Don” and “Bye Baby,” he went to great lengths to craft memorable story-driven videos to match. ” ‘The Don’ was a great visual, ‘Daughters’ was a great visual, ‘Nasty’ was great and I think with this record coming off of Distant Relatives, nobody expected this,” pointed out MTV Programming VP Yomi Desalu while referencing the mixed reviews surrounding Nas’ Damien Marley collaboration album in 2010.
Nas stops by the Hot 97 studios and sits down with Angie Martinez to talk about being snubbed by the Grammy’s 18 times before, his current relationship with ex-wife Kelis and more.
Last night in the city, former Rolling Stone and New York Times writer Anthony DeCurtis was granted an exclusive rare interview with Nas. Declared the hip-hops finest emcee of all time by CNN; the crowd in attendance at the “92Y: Cultural Institution and Community Center” in Manhattan got a rare glimpse into the life of NaS as he went through his rap career time line starting with his childhood in Queens.
Escobar touches on his early demo days and being influenced by older associates around his projects but wanting to create his own sound in his first years with Main Source. Nas also goes into big detail about the creation process behind his latest #1 album “Life is Good” along with touching on “Hip-Hop Is Dead,” the current climate of music and accepting all aspects and duality of rap.
Meek Mill will be dropping his debut album at the end of the month, and this is one of the most anticipated tracks from the project. Dreams And Nightmares in stores Oct. 30th!
BECOMING is an interview series that uncovers what successful actors, musicians, chefs, athletes and others, did to get to be leaders in their industries. In this episode Nas speaks on the first hip-hop show he attended, describes what Queens Bridge was like and also what it was like to hear himself on the radio for the first time ever. Check the full post for a bonus video from the series.
I don’t know anyone who cared enough about Nas’s Untitled album to feel any way at all about dream hampton’s accusations that large chunks of the album were actually written by Jay Electronica and stic.man of dead prez. Nothing Nasir Jones does can tarnish Illmatic’s place in history, and if it takes an army of ghostwriters to help him reach those heights again, I’m all for it. Untitled wasn’t even that good. What Nas needs more than anything is someone to help him pick beats and tell him to not rap like Sam Spade (and I really liked Hip-Hop Is Dead).
Ghostwriting is not a scandal in and of itself. Ice Cube wrote a lot of Eazy-E’s rhymes and Big Daddy Kane wrote for Biz Markie. Gillie wrote for Birdman. Hearing Diddy rap like Pharoahe Monch on “The Future” was surreal. And who can forget Skillz (pka Mad Skillz) pulling Read more…
