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Nas Reflects On the History of Rap, His Successful Career, Creative Freedom & More | Billboard Cover
Billboard
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8/4/2023
Hip-hop legend Nas reflects on the 50-year history of rap music, how successful his career has been, his recent creative freedom, and more.
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🎵
Music
Transcript
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00:00
Going into the Garden to do my own show was like, you know,
00:05
one of the greatest moments of my life.
00:08
You know, you thought you did shows before,
00:09
you thought you did tours, you did all these great things.
00:13
But being a New Yorker and playing in the Garden
00:15
and selling it out is a dream.
00:18
I think it's every kid from New York's dream.
00:20
♪ It's yours ♪
00:25
♪ Whose world is this? ♪
00:27
♪ The world is yours ♪
00:28
♪ The world is yours ♪
00:29
♪ It's mine, it's mine, it's mine ♪
00:30
♪ Whose world is this? ♪
00:33
No one could front on what the Bronx
00:35
has brought to the table earlier.
00:37
The whole New York was doing hip hop,
00:39
but no one, I think, was doing it on a level of the Bronx.
00:44
At that time, nah.
00:46
With this lyric that KRS once said,
00:48
"It isn't even 20 years old, 50 years down the line
00:52
"we can start this, and we'll be the old school artists."
00:56
♪ And even in that time, I'll say a lot ♪
00:58
Like, he saw it, he saw it.
01:01
And it was like artists from that era
01:03
was fighting for hip hop to live.
01:07
So to see that we're here and it survived,
01:11
and it's thriving, I think that's a beautiful thing.
01:14
And then for younger artists who are just like 20 years old
01:17
to realize the history that comes,
01:19
that was there, that was laid down,
01:22
for them to look at it and go, "Wow, look at this.
01:25
"This is a long history. This has deep roots.
01:28
"And this is a great, beautiful history
01:30
"they should be proud of."
01:32
I recently saw an interview with Ice Cube,
01:35
and he was talking about the East Coast/West Coast feud
01:38
didn't start with Big N' Pop.
01:40
It was kind of before that.
01:42
It was just normal territorial vibes.
01:46
It's just, "We represent this, y'all represent that."
01:49
And, you know, battle.
01:51
The essence of hip hop is also battle.
01:54
So everything was competitive.
01:56
New York was on they bullshit,
01:58
and West Coast was on they bullshit,
02:00
and the South, and so on.
02:02
So to have everybody there together
02:05
is what the birth of hip hop should be about.
02:08
It shouldn't be just one region.
02:10
It shouldn't be one borough.
02:12
It shouldn't just be one city.
02:14
It shouldn't be one-- everybody should be together.
02:17
♪ Better hear the story how the thugs live in worry ♪
02:20
♪ Duck down in car seats, heaps of money, jory ♪
02:23
The streets are the streets,
02:25
and we listen to music from people
02:29
directly from those circumstances,
02:32
young kids that are making hit records
02:34
telling you what's happening.
02:36
Once these artists get into the game
02:38
and realize you're changing the life,
02:40
you're changing your life, you're changing your family's life
02:43
and the future is to come.
02:45
If you can stay alive and stay out of jail,
02:48
that seems like some easy things to do.
02:51
But when you're fresh from that,
02:54
it's all you know.
02:56
So it takes some time to really believe.
02:59
You don't trust somebody who's been rich for 20 years
03:01
to tell you to chill out
03:03
when you just came from an environment
03:05
where nobody's on chill.
03:07
You think they over the hill.
03:09
They don't know what they're talking about.
03:11
It's going to take a lot of work.
03:13
♪ Baby, baby ♪
03:15
♪ Bye baby, I guess you know why I had to leave ♪
03:18
♪ Seven months in your pregnancy, 'bout to have my seed ♪
03:21
Whoever got far coming from zero,
03:24
I love to hear them talk
03:26
because you find out you can relate
03:28
to a lot of things they have to say,
03:30
and then you realize that what's in them,
03:32
it's also in you,
03:34
but you also have your own unique thing.
03:36
So some people you might think are smarter than you,
03:38
you realize, nah,
03:40
I think I look at this differently.
03:43
I think I'm not smarter,
03:45
but I'm not the dumbest guy in the room.
03:49
And that's what you realize
03:51
when you're around smart people.
03:53
You're not far off.
03:55
You think that you're far off,
03:57
and you don't know what's going on, but you do.
03:59
In most cases, you know more than the people
04:01
you thought were smarter than you.
04:03
A lot of people come to me and say,
04:05
"We've taken your approach and taken your this,
04:07
and we've become successful doing this and that other."
04:10
And that is something that I never saw happening.
04:14
I was used to people hearing my music,
04:16
and if they liked it, they told me,
04:18
but seeing my business moves
04:20
and wanting to do those things,
04:22
I'm like, I'm doing more
04:24
than I ever thought I'd be doing for people.
04:27
And I'm speechless about it.
04:29
It's beautiful.
04:31
♪ Stand above the surface, another purchase ♪
04:33
♪ I know my purpose, hopping out in retro Jordan 1 ♪
04:36
It's a great experience for me to work with a West Coast
04:39
or California producer who makes records
04:42
that sound like New York producers did them,
04:46
'cause it's just an art thing.
04:48
He can make that, he can do music that sounds like--
04:51
he can have me rapping on West Coast stuff,
04:54
and he does it where it still sounds like me.
04:57
That's the magic.
04:59
♪
05:01
I'm gonna do what I wanna do now,
05:04
and it's the freedom of creating records
05:07
because I just feel like it.
05:09
It's a hobby to me now to go to work.
05:12
I don't know how long it'll last, this feeling I have.
05:16
I don't know how long my feeling for making music
05:19
the way I feel now is gonna last,
05:22
but I'm going for it at the moment.
05:24
And it's making me have so much fun.
05:28
I want more people to join me for my era.
05:31
I want them to join in releasing records,
05:35
working hard on them shits.
05:37
I wanna hear how people feel. I wanna hear their art.
05:40
I don't wanna hear the trends. I wanna hear the art.
05:43
Express it. Do it. Be free.
05:46
And that's what I'm trying to give to the game now
05:50
is that, straight up. Just be free with it.
05:54
I don't pay attention to anything
05:56
except what I'm doing at this point
05:59
because I'm having so much fun
06:02
that I don't even look up to see what's going on.
06:06
So I could say I never had this amount of fun,
06:09
but I had a lot of fun in my life and in the business.
06:13
But, I mean, this feels unmatched.
06:16
This feeling is unmatched.
06:18
[Music]
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