Nas Reflects On The Streets, His Past And Giving Up Music

“Archeology. Learning about history and humanity and the world… It makes me wanna give up bowls, you know? Like Indiana Jones.”

Nas may be one of hiphop’s most critically acclaimed artists and one of the greatest lyricists ever to exist within the genre, but he insists that music is not something that he necessarily needs in his life. In fact, there’s been a few times he has considered quitting the industry to pursue his other creative interests.

“You know, I’ve said ‘I’ve made enough money’ a couple of times,” he said. “I’d rather be doing other things than music or just take a break from music. But I take breaks. I take enough o’ them breaks to live my life and try to relax and try to find out about other things goin’ on out there that might be of interest, y’know? Other hobbies, other careers – shit like that.”

Nas – born Nasir bin Olu Dara Jones – lands in the country today to tour the Good Vibrations Festival for 2011. His latest release, a collaboration with Damian Marley Distant Relatives came out in May 2010 to positive critical acclaim, and fuses both artist’s mutual love of hip hop and reggae, with lyrical themes based around their African roots. From politically charged tracks about civil war (“Tribes At War’s”), to the plight of refugees in “Strong Will Continue” and the didactic rally cry of “Africa Must Wake Up”, the creation of Distant Relatives was obviously a meaningful and personally significant collaboration for the pair.

It isn’t the first time Nas and Marley have worked together. On Marley’s Grammy winning record Welcome to Jamrock Nas performed guest vocals on the track “Road To Zion” and the fire’s been lit ever since. Making an entire album together was a no brainer, as Nas explained: “we love each others music, respect each others work and we just wanted to work some more and it just went from there really.”

In Distant Relatives and Nas’s last couple of solo albums (Hip Hop Is Dead, 2006 and Untitled, 2008) the lyrical content of his music has changed from the more insular autobiographical stories of life growing in the projects from his early records, to themes about family, career, self-identity and the music industry. Nas is reflective about the evolution of his music from being based on personal stories to the bigger picture, but it’s clear his home is still where his heart is. He said, “no matter what, street shit is my famous shit and my hip hop origins and it’s what I know first.”

“I like hearing other records where someone’s tryin’ to tell stories about what it’s like to survive. Those [stories] are my favourite street styles. But y’know, I’m not in the streets anymore. A lot of my friends are so it [the street] is around me and I’ll always feel a connection to it. Now when I go to different places it’ll stir up something new and it effects my mind and that effects my music.”

Nas was born in Brooklyn but was raised in Queensbridge Houses in Queens, the largest public housing development in North America. Growing up in the projects and his experiences of that time became the main inspiration behind his phenomenal 1994 debut album Illmatic. In 2002 Prefix magazine wrote: “Illmatic is the best hip-hop record ever made. Not because it has ten great tracks with perfect beats and flawless rhymes, but because it encompasses everything great about hip-hop that makes the genre worthy of its place in music history.”

And it’s true that Nas is a shining example of the all-time hip hop success story: Born and raised in the projects, educated himself from age 12 to become one of the most literate rappers and intelligent lyricists in the game, came through a world of gang-related criminal activity, drug culture and poverty to find critical and popular acclaim through his talent… Even though he left his life in Queensbridge over 20 years ago, the place and the people remain a big part of who he is. When he talks about his memories of growing up there it’s almost as if he’s still that little kid on the street absorbing the constant movement, traffic, people, sights and sounds. It’s still hard to articulate.

“I just know that it was like a city. .. a really busy city with amazing food and so many different things happening and it’s so fast. There were a lot of people of the streets then”, he said. “The [memories] come to me when I write, y’know? – any time I think of it when I write, any time that I think of it [the memories] come to me. My brother has a A+ memory, so we start talking and our conversations go there [to Queensbridge] a lot because most of the people we know still live there – so there’s still love.”

Whether or not Nas will get inspiration from the streets for the lyrics of his next album is something he’s keeping close to his chest, but he is working on a new record. Producer Salaam Remi [who produced the track “Made You Look” of his 2002 release God’s Son] is working on it with him, and he’s looking at some other producers to assist on the as-yet-unnamed album as well.

A lot has changed for Nas over the last few years. He married – and recently divorced – Kelis, who he had two kids with. A daughter and a son, who he refers to as his princess and prince. Another change is his interest in other creative endeavours outside of music, like his recent acting cameo on the remake of the classic action series Hawaii Five-O. He says acting is still something he wants to figure out.

“I went at it in the Nineties, the late Nineties, and hadn’t done anything so I feel like it’s a good time. I love movies and I think now’s a good time to get into movies.”

While he doesn’t have any acting roles coming up there’s a good chance he will be involved in another area of film: “I want to write movies,” he told us. He also revealed he is in the process of writing his memoirs. “I’m writing a book now. It’s about me. Me, my work and life. It’s probably ready next year. I’ve been going over it for a while so it should be ready next year.”

In the meantime, he’ll be sharing stages around the world with Damian Marley. “It’s magic when we do our thing. It’s magic, man.”

That sounds like something we don’t want to miss.

Watch Nas & Damian Marley at 2011 Good Vibrations Festival:
Saturday 12 February – Centennial Park, Sydney
Sunday 13 February – The Nursery, Flemington Racecourse, Melbourne
Saturday 19 February – Parklands Showgrounds, Gold Coast
Sunday 20 February – Claremont Showground, Perth

More Stuff From PEDESTRIAN.TV