Nas: Planning to stick around for quite some time to come and ensure hip hop's future

More than a dozen years after his explosive debut, Nas is still stirring things up and making great music, as you'll see from this fantastic session.

Hip Hop Is Dead is the clarion call title of Nas' latest album and one that has stirred up a lot of positive and negative reaction, but one of New York's finest rappers has always been about creating energy, heat and light around a multitude of subjects. So, his turning of the torch and bringing hip hop itself into his spotlight should really come as no surprise.

Reports of hip hop's demise has been greatly exaggerated but for Nas it's all about provoking debate and reminding all concerned that hip hop is not all about commercialisation and that as far as it has come over the past 20 years, there's a long way to go. "We're in good shape. We're starting to see career artists. This is what I mean by 'hip hop is dead.' We haven't got to Mick Jagger status...When we get there, we're saying something. But it'll take a few years," says Nas.

DJ Les and Nas' band have been rehearsing for the AOL Session, along with Nas' father Olu Dara, a jazz/blues trumpeter in his own right, who has appeared on Nas' albums since the dramatic and now classic debut Illmatic from 1994. The band prepped, the man himself walks into the studio and we're ready to roll.

Bridging The Gap opens the session in brilliant style with the musical baton passing between father and son working a treat. Following that, Nas moves into modern mode with You Can't Kill Me and Can't Forget About You from his latest collection, the aforementioned Hip Hip Is Dead. And that track is next on the set list before he and the band wrap up with a medley of It Ain't Hard To Tell from Illmatic and The World Is Yours.

The last track from his latest album is called Hope and Nas sees plenty around for hip hop while artists such as Snoop Dogg, himself and OutKast keep producing the musical goods that keep hip hop very much alive and kicking.

Hip Hop Is Dead: Released 2006, available on CD and as a download.

- Download Nas with iTunes
- Buy Nas on CD from Amazon
- Visit his official website
- Search: Nas

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