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Nas Gets ‘Nasty’ On New Single

Posted on June 14, 2011 by Benny Hollywood| Leave a comment

The Good Life single looks back to the early days of hip-hop while staying firmly planted in the present. By Rob Markman Nas Photo: C. Flanigan/ Getty Images There’s no R&B chord, A-list feature or catchy chorus. On “Nasty,” the first single from Nas ‘ 10th solo album, The Good Life, the rapper takes things back to hip-hop basics: hard rhymes over an infectious loop. The song, which leaked online Monday night, is reminiscent of New York’s 1980s infamous park jams and starts out with a DJ asking the rapper’s native Queensbridge housing projects, “Are y’all ready to see Nasty Nas?” The question is, of course, rhetorical. After Nasir pushed rap’s envelope in 2008 on his politically charged Untitled album (originally titled N—er ), fans have clamored for new solo material. Thankfully, “Nasty” lives up to its name, as the track’s opening bars paint a picture of New York’s pre-gentrified crack era: “Late-night candlelight fiend with diesel in his needle/ Queensbridge leader, no equal.” Nas continues to toss numerous nods to the ’80s and ’90s on the Salaam Remi-produced track. There’s a shout to Queens street legend Thomas “Tony Montana” Mickens, the now-closed Tunnel nightclub and the late Notorious B.I.G. Still, “Nasty” isn’t just a trip down memory lane. In fact, Nas remains with his feet firmly planted in 2011 as he reflects on his growth from a wide-eyed boy looking out of his project window to rap’s upper echelon, while still leaving room to grow.”We ain’t going backwards, we’re staying forward though,” Nas said in a June interview with DJ Envy on MTV2’s Sucker Free. With the song’s lyrics, he stays true to that notion. “Silent rage, pristine in my vintage shades/ I’m not in the winters of my life or the beginning stage,” Nas spits before revealing his lustful interest in actress Antonique Smith, who played Faith Evans in the 2009 Biggie biopic “Notorious.” Nas continues to fire off quotables in rapid succession. “I’m so high, I never land like Mike Jackson’s crib” and “Your flow’s cheap as limousine liquor” are just a few examples of Nas’ spirited wordplay. If the new single is any indication of what fans can expect from the new Nas album, then for hip-hop fans, life is good. What do you think of Nas’ latest single? Share your reviews in the comments! Related Artists Nas

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Nas Reveals He Considered Giving Up Solo Projects

Posted on January 4, 2011 by Benny Hollywood| Leave a comment

MC tells MTV News he got deep into Distant Relatives collabo, ‘but it’s that time’ for a Nas album. By Jayson Rodriguez, with reporting by Rahman Dukes Nas Photo: MTV News He went from Nasty Nas to Nas Escobar, blossoming into a mature voice that could collaborate with the likes of dancehall star Damian Marley for a full-length album. But As Nas’ street-edged material has continued to leak online, the question is which Nas will show up on his next effort, due later this year: Nasty or an entirely new persona? Neither, according to the Queensbridge MC. “Sometimes, you can approach a record and can think, I got to take care of this person and I got to take care of that person, but you really got to take care of you,” Nas recently told MTV News. “I look at Michael Jackson, and before he passed away, I can only imagine the pressure he had to live up to for the next moonwalk,” he continued. “And the reality is physically, he wasn’t able to live up to that. I would have loved to see him come up with the next level, without even dancing, just using his creativity. It’s all about evolving and that’s what I want to do, evolve.” Nas spent last year touring in support of Distant Relatives, his joint project with Marley. The rapper said he was so comfortable working alongside Bob Marley’s offspring that he momentarily considered putting his solo career on the back burner. “I been so caught up into me and [Damian’s] thing that I started to get used to it,” Nas recalled. “Like, I didn’t want to do the solo thing for a while. Me and D have just been doing our thing, reaching millions of people, but it’s that time.” For his next album, Nas said he expects to bundle the material with the latest volume of his Lost Tapes series . He still isn’t sure, however, whether his current label will release the album. “It’s not safe to say that it’s gonna be on Def Jam,” he told MTV News. “You know, news at 11,” he laughed. “We coming with the information on that soon.” Are you looking to the next Nas album? Tell us in the comments! Related Artists Nas

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Nas Reveals He Considered Giving Up Solo Projects

Posted on January 4, 2011 by Benny Hollywood| Leave a comment

MC tells MTV News he got deep into Distant Relatives collabo, ‘but it’s that time’ for a Nas album. By Jayson Rodriguez, with reporting by Rahman Dukes Nas Photo: MTV News He went from Nasty Nas to Nas Escobar, blossoming into a mature voice that could collaborate with the likes of dancehall star Damian Marley for a full-length album. But As Nas’ street-edged material has continued to leak online, the question is which Nas will show up on his next effort, due later this year: Nasty or an entirely new persona? Neither, according to the Queensbridge MC. “Sometimes, you can approach a record and can think, I got to take care of this person and I got to take care of that person, but you really got to take care of you,” Nas recently told MTV News. “I look at Michael Jackson, and before he passed away, I can only imagine the pressure he had to live up to for the next moonwalk,” he continued. “And the reality is physically, he wasn’t able to live up to that. I would have loved to see him come up with the next level, without even dancing, just using his creativity. It’s all about evolving and that’s what I want to do, evolve.” Nas spent last year touring in support of Distant Relatives, his joint project with Marley. The rapper said he was so comfortable working alongside Bob Marley’s offspring that he momentarily considered putting his solo career on the back burner. “I been so caught up into me and [Damian’s] thing that I started to get used to it,” Nas recalled. “Like, I didn’t want to do the solo thing for a while. Me and D have just been doing our thing, reaching millions of people, but it’s that time.” For his next album, Nas said he expects to bundle the material with the latest volume of his Lost Tapes series . He still isn’t sure, however, whether his current label will release the album. “It’s not safe to say that it’s gonna be on Def Jam,” he told MTV News. “You know, news at 11,” he laughed. “We coming with the information on that soon.” Are you looking to the next Nas album? Tell us in the comments! Related Artists Nas

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Ron Artest Returns To His Hometown In Queens

Posted on July 20, 2010 by Benny Hollywood| Leave a comment

‘It’s great coming back as a champion,’ the New York native says. By Shaheem Reid Ron Artest Photo: MTV News No doubt about it, Ron Artest is up there with Allen Iverson as one of the most ‘hood-beloved, realest basketball players to ever run the court in the NBA. Ron-Ron, as his fans and family call him, was keeping it so gully when he returned to New York he rode the F train from Manhattan to the 21st Queensbridge stop, his old stomping grounds. “Today we rode the subway here,” Ron said, standing in a neighborhood park on the 40th side of Vernon Avenue. “I wanted to make it special — my neighborhood represented me with an award, so we rode the train all the way down here, came off the regular, walked to get the award. It gave me memories just of going to school, South Academy, Second Avenue. I smelled that train station, 34th street. I haven’t been on that train in 13 years.” Ron was presented with an award in the middle of Queensbridge. “Today we over in Queensbridge projects, biggest projects in America,” he explained. “We’re having a good day, good barbecue. I just got an award off of bringing home the championship and doing good things in the community. Today we gonna go to the park. Funk Flex is going to be there, EPMD, DJ Hot Day, [my artists] the Tru Warriors. I’m gonna be there. You gonna see a lot of performances. I did a song called ‘Champion’ last year. We’re gonna walk you through the neighborhood … shout-out to Nas, shout-out to Mobb Deep. “It’s great coming back as a champion,” Artest continued, with DJ Hot Day spinning records on a huge stage standing on a baseball field. “So many things that Queensbridge has done with music … basketball with Vern Flemming, Andy Walker a long time ago. Nas, Mobb Deep — this is another notch under our belt.” Artest endeared himself to viewers from his neighborhood by being vocal about his hometown pride, shouting out his Queensbridge home in post-game interviews. “A lot of support,” he said about what he experienced during the finals, in which the Los Angeles Lakers beat the Boston Celtics. “It was tough, because it was like being in a battle, being in a war — but [Queensbridge] stuck with me. They already know I was gonna come through. But a lot of people counted me out. From game to game, things kept changing. This is the most intense anything I’ve been a part of, the championship. To always represent my neighborhood, but never win [the championship], it was like I’m representing, but not really. So I gotta chance to really represent and it was great. “During the finals, it was dope,” he added about shouting out his native soil. “You representing your ‘hood. That was a sign that we never changed. That’s gotta be one of the realest things — entertainment-wise, as far as keeping it ‘hood — anyone has done. I’m glad to be at the forefront of that. I been representing my ‘hood for a long time. The only thing that’s new is that ring.” Related Artists Ron Artest

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Nas Kicks Off Levi’s 2010 Pioneer Recording Sessions With Slick Rick Cover

Posted on May 25, 2010 by Benny Hollywood| Leave a comment

‘The song kind of helped me out when I was a young knucklehead,’ Nas says of ’88 classic ‘Hey Young World.’ By Steven Roberts Nas Photo: MTV News For its Levi’s Pioneer Sessions, the popular denim company called on a dozen musical acts to recreate some of the songs that helped shaped not only their careers, but the course of music over that last few decades. A lineup that includes John Legend, the Roots, the Dirty Projectors and She and Him makes up their 2010 Revival Recordings Program. To kick things off Levi’s approached one of the greatest MCs of all time, Nas, and asked him to re-craft a song of his choosing. The Queensbridge MC knew he wanted to go with a song that spoke to him when he was a “young knucklehead”: rapper Slick Rick’s ’88 classic “Hey Young World.” “Slick Rick is one of the greatest artists — not just MCs — artists in the world, and I just really love his music,” Nas told MTV News. “Hey Young World,” it just really spoke to me when I was young. What he was saying in the song kind of helped me out when I was a young knucklehead,” he explained. “I just wanted to honor the song and honor Ricky.” Nas recalled hearing the song for the first time in his sixth-floor Queensbridge apartment. His crew would come over, huddling close to listen to a bootleg copy of Rick’s debut, The Great Adventures of Slick Rick. The song’s positive message — its uplifting chorus promising “the world is yours” became the title of Nas’ classic gem — helped steer the budding MC from a bad path. “It was a terrible copy, but everybody was surrounding the radio listening to this album, and when “Hey Young World” came on — it caught everybody,” he continued. “We were about to go outside, it was night time. I remember almost everybody was there, I remember it like yesterday … I heard the song, and I [had gotten] into it with somebody earlier outside, and I didn’t know how it was going to end. And when I heard the song, it kind of calmed me down from going further. It really did, it calmed me down.” Re-recording the track also brought Nas back to the late-’80s New York City of his childhood. “There were car shows on 125th Street [in Harlem, New York], where no cars would hardly move. You would see people with Connecticut plates, New Jersey plates. The fashion was insane! There were street vendors outside selling knockoff Guess jeans on 125, Jamaica Avenue [shopping strip in Queens, New York], gold teeth, the snorkel jackets,” Nas remembered, alluding to the fur-lined hooded coats. “New York had a way about itself that will probably never happen again.” The song is available for download at the Levi’s Pioneer Sessions website. What do you think of Nas’ Slick Rick cover? Let us know in the comments! Related Artists Nas Slick Rick

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Nas, Damian Marley Bring Political Distant Relatives Tour To NYC

Posted on May 18, 2010 by Benny Hollywood| Leave a comment

Duo joined by Evil Genius Green Lantern for socially conscious show. By Shaheem Reid Lyrically, Nas has been at a higher altitude than his peers since the beginning of his career. His verbal achievements have become legendary. While admittedly, Nas sometimes has questionable beat selections, the Queensbridge native’s words have been so piercing that the guy can frankly get away with rapping over anything. And he has. Last year when Esco announced that he would be following up his album Untitled with a duet LP with a star outside of genre, Damian “Jr. Gong” Marley , some of his fans didn’t know what to think. But if there is anyone who could actually pull it off, it’s Nas. Certainly there would be way more public pushback if, say, a Jay-Z, Eminem, T.I. or Young Jeezy would have set out on such an audacious musical venture. But with Nas, you know his spirit is free, and even in his mid-30s, the timeless mic king is almost as rebellious as when he was a 20-year-old kid fresh out of the Queensbridge projects. Last night, Nas and Jr. Gong touched down at New York’s Highline Ballroom for the second show of their Distant Relatives tour (the trek started this weekend in Chicago). The messages in the music steer clear of materialistic jargon and partying — the duo pushed thought provocation on worldwide subjects. Nas brought one of the great DJs in hip-hop, the Evil Genius Green Lantern. Marley came with his band, including backup singers, as well as a flag bearer who proudly and tirelessly waved the colors of Jamaica throughout the show. “What happened to us?” Nas rapped with force on “Tribes at War,” performed at the top of their set. “Geographically they moved us, from Africa/ We was once happiness pursuers/ Now we backstabbin’/ Combative and abusive/ African and Arab go at it, they most Muslim/ We should be movin’ in unison.” “Ancient People” came next, with Nas checking his BlackBerry while on the mic. Either he had an urgent text message or he couldn’t remember his lines, but nevertheless, Esco kept going. “Nah Mean” followed, with the Distant Relatives duo asking President Obama what he could do for them. From there, it was vintage Nas. The supreme MC went into some vintage material, including “Nas Is Like,” “Represent” and “Hip-Hop Is Dead.” “I hate the radio!” Nas yelled on the latter. “F— the radio.” Nas shouted out the Jamaican forefather of hip-hop, Kool Herc, and at the end of “If I Ruled the World” gave love to Guru. “My man Guru, he walks,” Nas said as his background singers sang, “we’ll walk right up to the sun. Hand in hand.” “This one’s about leaders,” Marley sang, from one of the album’s highlights, “Leaders.” “Let’s all change the world.” “The odds stacked against him/ He fights back Mac and Benzes/ Never puts cash or ass before a friendship/ He laughs last/ As some die young, he is still existing/ Somehow he got around the pitfalls of the system/ When he walks, we watch/ When we talks, we listen/ Leaders.”

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