Nas interview (The Source Jan. 08)Nas' decade and a half in the game has taught him a lot about not just Hip-Hop but the world around him. With a greatest hits album and another controversial release on the horizon, Nas takes time to analyze the past year in an effort to chart where he's headed.
Nasir Bin Olu Dara Jones cracks a smile. His eyes aren't sleepy, his words don't trail off and his voice is sharp, cutting the room with tales from his past. "Man, I remember when you could get you a nutcracker and be good for the night," he says to one childhood friend and business associate. The two laugh at the memory. "You take one of those to the head and you're done. I got caught out there a couple times myself."
Apparently, back in the troublesome '90s, you could cop a homemade cocktail -- some modern day moonshine -- from someone's project apartment. Surrounded by a few friends at a photo shoot for this magazine, the thought of those "nutcracker" bottles sets Nas at ease and offers a glimpse at a side of Nas unfamiliar to those outside his inner circle: the man behind the Illmatic mask is a wisecracking father and friend who happens to be the preeminent poet of our generation.
With his interviews --TV, magazine and radio -- Nas has become known for his lazy speech, his monotone voice and his unexcitable demeanor. He builds walls around himself to keep you out and to keep in certain aspects of his life and his personality. It's worked in his favor up to this point. As a result, the media frenzy of celebrity internet sites, reality TV and near twenty-four hour access has yet to rob Nas of the mystique he's built since dropping Illmatic in 1994. However, with a new greatest hits album on shelves, there is a world of difference from that kid Nasty Nas, and the thiry-four year old man we see today.
"Nas then just wanted to get some money," Nas says, explaining how he's grown over the years. "I just wanted to buy this cat's aqua green Benz, with gold knobs on the lock. I wanted that and I wanted something for the crew to get their grind on in the P's. But you know how the world changes. So in between those times I had to roll with it. Looking back, time flies."
After dropping the headline-grabbing title Hip-Hop Is Dead in December 2006, he sparked a wildfire of controversy. New rappers and some "Down Bottom" artists felt targeted by his rap obituary as they were just beginning to get a full taste of the rap high life. Nas, on the other hand, maintains he was only announcing the decaying elephant carcass in the room.
"When I said Hip-Hop is dead I was trying to grab their attention to this special art form that's so important to us in the future," Nas explains. "It had nothing to do with what a guy's doing in the South or in the West. There is a place for all that. When you play Soulja Boy in the club, that's 'my ****'. But because I'm a New Yorker, I'm affected with what is happening in New York. That's just me as a fan. it makes you wake up and say, 'Where is the love for this ****?' "
Even those who believe rap is alive and kicking would admit this year has been a trying one for Hip-Hop. Don imus muttered the three infamous words that sent rap to Captiol hill to defend itself in a congressional hearing and rap executives to Oprah to help America's soccer moms understand free speech and ghetto living.
Meanwhile, Nas crafts his ninth studio album, which agains carries a controversial moniker. This is where we find Nas today: kicking back on a sofa at a photography studio, imagining what it'd be like to taste a nutcracker again and trying to make sense of it all.
You claim your next album, after the greatest hits, will be titled ******. Why open that bag of worms after Hip-Hop Is Dead?That was the original name of the Hip-Hop Is Dead album. But when I put that name out there, Def Jam called and said to chill on the title. It was too soon. It was ahead of it's time. So Hip-Hop is Dead was appropriate as a replacement because that's also what I was feeling. The word, we took it and took the power out of it and made the power of the word benefit us. So now non-blacks that use the word don't where the **** they fit in with the word. They don't know if it holds any weight or if it doesn't. They are confused about it. Either way it made him money, and it makes us money. "******" has been both great and bad to America.
But why do we have to use it to describe ourselves?That's an argument that didn't start this year. That's an argument that goes back before Richard Pryor. The more they come down on rap, the stronger rap becomes. Everybody forgot about us. The school system is the killing field, TV id the demon. I don't want to sound like Mr. Preacher Man but real talk, all these things we had to grow up with, the whole establishment, has been holding us back. How did we come up with rap? They took everything away from us. And the artist who invented it was destroyed.
Think there will ever be a time when you might feel differently and not use the word, like Richard Pryor famously did?Yeah, I can see a time when it's very possible. You mature. At some point you don't want to eat certain foods or watch certain TV shows. **** gets played out. At some point, yeah, ***** can get played out to me. But as of right now, I'm a ***** for life.
So why did folks get so bent out of shape when Imus made the "Nappy Headed Ho" remark? If you're calling your album ******, were you offended by Imus' remarks?You know, first of all, "nappy-headed" is not disrespectful to me. If you call me nappy-headed, I'm thankful for that. I love my hair, I love the texture, I love Black women's hair -- curly, knotty, dreaded, whatever. If it's permed, I like it too. Black women can do so many different things with their hair. So nappy-head is not disrespect. But I'm not falling for Don Imus' scheme. I'm not falling for Bill O'Reilly's schemes. Those cats saw the guys come before them and become filthy rich. Like Howard Stern has been saying crazy **** to women, wild **** to Black people. It's his gimmick. Those guys are entertainers. That's marketing. He did what everyone expected him to do. And he won. Imus walked away with millions and signed a new contract.
It seems like everybody id piling on. Even Oprah Winfrey put rappers on notice with that Hip-Hop centered town hall meeting.Whatever it takes to get them to pay attention to us. Oprah Winfrey doing a show about hip-Hop is a beautiful thing. Some people are mad at Oprah, some are mad at the speakers. I love the fact that we can have a conversation. You can't expect Oprah Winfrey to sit up here and quote lyrics from Ultramagnetic MCs and understand us. She's part of us, but she's of another generation. She has a right to like what she wants to like. So if my moms was here and she spoke her opinion, you have no right to talk down to an older Black woman, a brilliant woman who really just wants to know what the **** is going on. If you want her to know and understand, someone should explain to her eloquently what this **** is about. There's a generation gap.
That was evedent this year when David Banner and Al Sharpton launched verbal missiles at each other.Al Sharpton is our warrior, whether people like him or not. No one is perfect. Al Sharpton is going to go out there on the frontlines for us. Also, David Banner is a warrior for us. It's just two generations speaking the same thing but there is confusion along the way because somebody feel like the other is picking on the other ot that they're not understood. One thing I don't like is when our elders give up on us, turn all conservative 'cause they "made it" and start looking down on us as if their hands ain't dirty, like they weren't just like us at one time. I can't se myself ****ting on the youth. Ever.
Bin Olu Dara Jones is eyeing a big-faced diamond ring, holding it up to the light for inspection. Other assorted jewelry -- necklaces, watches -- shines on the table before him, each more magnificent than the last. Nas places the ring down and scoops a classic necklace with a crucifix dangling on the end, a more subdued choice given the gaudy treasures on display.
"Yeah. i like this one," he says to the jewelry guy who begins to delicately place the other pieces back into his carrying case. This, the renting of bling for a photo shott, is one of those backstage moments that we know exists, but the average fan doesn't get to witness firsthand. "I left all my jewels at my crib in Atlanta," Nas says, taking care to explain away any possible contradictions. "I didn't want to travel with it."
It's not like Nas hasn't been plagued with inconsistencies throughout his career. From Nasty to Nas to Esco, he's revealed his own sort of holy trinity that represents the whole person. So when O'Reilly attacks Nas for his gun talk on "Shoot Em Up," as he did, he is only seeing on side of the pyramid.
O'Reilly cleverly raised questions about Nas performing a a remembrance for Virginia Tech's thrity-two students that were gunned down on campus. O'reilly's argument is that Nas, or as he pronounced it, Nez, shouldn't be performing for kids at a university that was devastated by gun violence if he make songs about gun violence. Naturally, the man who made "I Can," an ode to the limitless potential of ghetto youth, feels differently.
"He did the Nez thing on purpose," Nas says with a chuckle. "It's marketing for him. He has people looking at him with their jaws to the floor. He's like their Dave Chappelle. You can't get mad at him because he's an actor."
Because Nas has been able to let those attacks roll on by he seems larger than the words and those who stand against him. This judo technique has even kept him relevant even as his popularity fluctuates from disc to disc. So when noteworthy comparisons arise, like the MTV controversial "Hottest Rapper" list, where Jim Jones, who is somewhat of an antagonist toward Nas, edging him out for a top ten spot, Nas is still able to see himself beyond ranking. And instead of having a Kanye West meltdown, he invites the energy and deflects it into another direction.
"I love it," he says. "It keeps the rap spirit alive. You can say Vanilla Ice is hotter than me. I don't get caught up in that ****. I'm glad that there are rap conversations and debates. People are supposed to have different rankings because different fans like different ****. I said it in a song a while ago, 'There ain't no best.' We can sit around and debate all that stuff. I'm not in the top five anymore, or the top ten. I look at myself as one of America's rap icons. There is no number one, no number ten. Just icons."
You seem to be one the few relevant rappers who regularly pays tribute to the old shcool. Is that a conscious move?"If we don't keep that alive, we aren't going nowhere. When the rockers record they listen to Muddy Waters, they listen to John Taylor. You gotta do your homework. The heavy metal guys, The Beatles, whatever was around before, they would listen to the **** that started it all. If you listen tothe **** Kanye's doing you can tell he studies. If you don't study you can hear it in the music, and you're not going to last long.
What about popular young artists like Soulja Boy and others, they seem to be doing okay for themselves.If you become a boxer and you don't watch tapes of Joe Louis or Muhammad Ali, how far can you go? Not just inside the ring but outside the ring as well. So that's how important it is. I think Soulja Boy is the thing right now. If he wants to stay in it though, he don't need me to tell him, he;s going to figure out where he's going by studying what's going on. That's the beauty of this ****.
You said earlier that his his record is the ****. Can you crank dat?[laughs] My Superman is wack, but I definitely can try when I throw a few drinks back. I got to have a good time man.
The biggest story this year was Kanye vs. 50 Cent. What was your take on this SoundScan Battle?It was cool. That **** was kinda needed. It helped Hip-Hop. With the record industry being in such a crazy slump with the whole world changing and the technology forcing people to get music in different ways, they showed you that even though things change, **** remains the same. People still go out and buy records. And Hip-Hop is still the most exciting **** ever when the right people get together and put out some ****.
Did you have any predictions?To be honest I thought 50 would sell more records. Kanye helped kill all that first week ****. 50 bases his career off first week but we all know first week sales ain't about ****. Kanye killed the First Week King and that is a great thing for Hip-Hop 'cause *****s are not supposed to be focusing on sales like that.
How does Nas fit into the first-week frenzy?There was a part of my life when I was into that. I was a part of that era when it started becoming a big thing. With I Am I went gold in the first week so I was kinda feeling myself. I thought I would sell even more than that! The hype was crazy, anticipation was out of control. So around that time I was really into it because it was a business. It was a race, it was a challenge, it was a competitive thing. After you go past that you realize that's not your goal. And the next record should be something totally different. So the next record I didn't focus on that.
On the political front, does Nastradamus have any 2008 predictions?Not at the moment. I'm still ****ed up over the last election with Bush. If that could happen, I'm ready to see a new America. I think Obama would be a great face for America. The Black man's true nature is peace. All humans really want is peace. If he's the face of America, there will be peace.
You're on album number nine. What's left to do?When I look at great music people I realize that I've just started . James Brown and all these cats were scientists. I got about ten more albums before I can consider myself in that iconic class.
Great interview
On January 1st 2007 we got the Kweli/Madlib collabo and this year we got something almost as dope:
Inverse - So Far (The Collection) (download immediately!!!)
DOWNLOAD
It’s finally here folks….grab it and let us know what you think. Click above to download!
Happy New Year to all of our friends, family and fans who helped make this possible. We love y’all!
peace,
Tunj and Tob.
http://inversehiphop.wordpress.com/2008/01/01/inverse-so-far-the-collection-download-immediately/
I will definitely play some Inverse on HHH in the future
Topic: The Official Rap Thread (Read 669898 times)