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What Nas Said! · Hip-Hop Now Podcast

• 0:02
  Speaker 1: Thank you. What up, y'all? I am your host, Vegas,
• 0:20
  Speaker 1: and this is Hip Hop Now Podcast, a podcast specifically
• 0:24
  Speaker 1: designed to keep you caught up on all things hip hop, music,
• 0:28
  Speaker 1: and culture that happen throughout the week. Big shout out
• 0:32
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• 0:35
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• 0:45
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• 0:50
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• 0:59
  Speaker 1: to 41,000. So still a little bit of ways to go,
• 1:02
  Speaker 1: but perhaps we'll get there sooner rather than later. Uh,
• 1:07
  Speaker 1: also if you love hip hop, because not everybody who
• 1:10
  Speaker 1: pulls up loves hip hop, um, Check out the latest
• 1:16
  Speaker 1: episode that I did with the homie Tony from IntoTheDome.com.
• 1:22
  Speaker 1: We have a series that appears right here on this
• 1:25
  Speaker 1: channel and also on the audio feed called That Time
• 1:28
  Speaker 1: in Hip Hop, where we celebrate the legacy of albums
• 1:32
  Speaker 1: and artists and, you know, just people and moments that
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  Speaker 1: So check that out right here on the channel. But
• 2:10
  Speaker 1: let's get right into the business. So I believe this
• 2:17
  Speaker 1: happened early this week. But Nas wrote a letter to
• 2:24
  Speaker 1: the music industry and showed it and posted it on
• 2:30
  Speaker 1: his social media accounts. You know, Twitter. We don't call
• 2:34
  Speaker 1: it that other name. Twitter, Instagram, wherever, you know, they
• 2:39
  Speaker 1: usually post feeds. And it's an interesting note that Reminds
• 2:45
  Speaker 1: some of us of his album, Hip Hop is Dead,
• 2:49
  Speaker 1: and the whole concept behind that and what Nas' thought
• 2:54
  Speaker 1: process was when he made that album. So let's read
• 2:59
  Speaker 1: what Nas wrote. It's not very long. For the past year,
• 3:02
  Speaker 1: I've been watching so much happen in the culture while
• 3:05
  Speaker 1: working on music. I think about how it started. I
• 3:09
  Speaker 1: think about the Mississippi Delta to New Orleans to New York.
• 3:12
  Speaker 1: I think about Robert Johnson at the crossroads, how he
• 3:16
  Speaker 1: changed music, and how we can't even find his grave.
• 3:20
  Speaker 1: Sometimes I look at all artists, creators, and executives the
• 3:24
  Speaker 1: same way. The music game forgets or doesn't compensate the
• 3:28
  Speaker 1: foundation our greats have been stolen from and ripped off of.
• 3:34
  Speaker 1: We can't keep creating music for the sake of a
• 3:38
  Speaker 1: quote-unquote trend. We have to remember the purpose and our contribution,
• 3:44
  Speaker 1: and how many things we created. Where's the love for
• 3:48
  Speaker 1: each other at? We gotta take a stand as one.
• 3:52
  Speaker 1: It's time for a celebration of the music. No knowledge
• 3:56
  Speaker 1: of self is certain death. It's time to address it.
• 4:00
  Speaker 1: Love y'all. Nas. Nasia Jones, Black Music, 2026. Now, y'all
• 4:05
  Speaker 1: know me. Right? I've been watching Mo' Better Blues. So
• 4:14
  Speaker 1: if y'all remember Denzel in there, if you're watching the video.
• 4:19
  Speaker 1: Two lines stuck out to me. We're going to talk
• 4:21
  Speaker 1: about what he's talking about, but two lines stuck out
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  Speaker 1: to me. You know what I'm saying? Okay. One, it's
• 4:29
  Speaker 1: the first line. For the past year, I've been watching
• 4:32
  Speaker 1: so much happen in the culture while working on music. Nunas.
• 4:41
  Speaker 1: But when? It's time for a celebration of music. It's time.
• 4:48
  Speaker 1: Usually when you say it's time, yeah, sure, it's time
• 4:52
  Speaker 1: for us to celebrate music, but you're really including yourself, right?
• 4:57
  Speaker 1: Why say y'all should start celebrating music when you feel
• 5:01
  Speaker 1: like you should also? And lastly, it's time to address
• 5:08
  Speaker 1: it And it's how he signed off, right? Love y'all Nas.
• 5:11
  Speaker 1: We get that. But bolded at the very bottom under
• 5:16
  Speaker 1: his name, Nasir Jones, is Black Music 2026. B-L-A-K Music 2026. Now,
• 5:28
  Speaker 1: if you know, please leave it in the comment section.
• 5:31
  Speaker 1: That's spelling the black, black music. It could be one
• 5:35
  Speaker 1: of two things. It could be another distribution arm of
• 5:41
  Speaker 1: Mass Appeal Records that's going to release music of some
• 5:44
  Speaker 1: of our legendary artists so they can get a little
• 5:47
  Speaker 1: bit of money in their pocket. We know he has
• 5:49
  Speaker 1: a foundation, but maybe it's that, right? I don't know.
• 5:52
  Speaker 1: But what I think it could be is that could
• 5:55
  Speaker 1: be the title of his next album, Black Music. And
• 5:58
  Speaker 1: it could feature and honor a lot of... Black music
• 6:04
  Speaker 1: in general, because as you can see, he said from
• 6:07
  Speaker 1: Mississippi Delta to New Orleans and New York, it could
• 6:10
  Speaker 1: be a celebration of Black music and him feeling like
• 6:16
  Speaker 1: he want to get back to the roots of why
• 6:19
  Speaker 1: we do this and how we do this. Now, on
• 6:24
  Speaker 1: the one hand, because I feel two ways about it.
• 6:28
  Speaker 1: On one hand, yes, I agree with Nas wholeheartedly. You know,
• 6:32
  Speaker 1: when you think about What we create, how we create,
• 6:37
  Speaker 1: why we create, the experiences that are behind the music
• 6:41
  Speaker 1: for those who are true artists. We're not talking about
• 6:43
  Speaker 1: none of you whack guys just trying to get a
• 6:45
  Speaker 1: check or just trying to get on or want to
• 6:47
  Speaker 1: be famous. And you really don't put much into your
• 6:51
  Speaker 1: music beyond your desires, right? So I definitely get it
• 6:57
  Speaker 1: from that standpoint. Is it everybody? Hell no. You know
• 7:01
  Speaker 1: what I'm saying? Because there are a number of albums
• 7:02
  Speaker 1: I could point to that are doing exactly what Nas
• 7:05
  Speaker 1: is requesting. But I think he's looking at a broader
• 7:09
  Speaker 1: picture and how hip hop stands globally, you know, not locally,
• 7:16
  Speaker 1: not on Twitter, where not that small of a reach,
• 7:21
  Speaker 1: even though it includes those artists and producers also. But
• 7:25
  Speaker 1: he's talking about on a broader scale, like what's popular,
• 7:30
  Speaker 1: what's selling the most? You know, is it true to
• 7:36
  Speaker 1: artistry and music? And as he stated, you know, he
• 7:40
  Speaker 1: looks back and he's like all creators and artists and executives.
• 7:45
  Speaker 1: He look at them the same way because they all
• 7:47
  Speaker 1: just in assembly line pumping out trash. Right. Or music
• 7:52
  Speaker 1: that's uninspired and doesn't inspire anyone. So I do agree
• 7:59
  Speaker 1: with him on a global scale when it comes to music.
• 8:03
  Speaker 1: And in particular, because this is where we are, hip hop. Right.
• 8:09
  Speaker 1: But also. For Nas. I'm afraid of this album, if
• 8:16
  Speaker 1: it's an album. And that sounds weird to say for
• 8:20
  Speaker 1: someone like myself, who I consider myself more of a
• 8:23
  Speaker 1: music fan than just a hip hop fan. And I
• 8:26
  Speaker 1: have like a live stream of music in my collection.
• 8:29
  Speaker 1: It's just talking about that for members to stay tuned
• 8:32
  Speaker 1: for that. But I kind of feel like when Nas
• 8:38
  Speaker 1: has attempted to do these things, they, you know, you
• 8:42
  Speaker 1: get excited because it's Nas saying it, but I don't,
• 8:47
  Speaker 1: forget or revise history. And I know what it felt
• 8:51
  Speaker 1: like to get hype for the untitled album, just to
• 8:55
  Speaker 1: hear it and feel like the mixtape was better. Like
• 8:57
  Speaker 1: the mixtape spoke more to the concept and the message
• 9:03
  Speaker 1: he was trying to convey than the untitled album did.
• 9:07
  Speaker 1: And don't get me wrong, there's some joints on there,
• 9:09
  Speaker 1: but as a whole, it just wasn't what I thought
• 9:13
  Speaker 1: it was going to be. Same thing for hip hop
• 9:15
  Speaker 1: is dead. it, that was a point in time where
• 9:20
  Speaker 1: the music, especially hip hop lyrically had taken a dip. And,
• 9:24
  Speaker 1: you know, some people from the South, uh, felt upset,
• 9:27
  Speaker 1: like namely Jeezy about that because it, to him, it
• 9:31
  Speaker 1: felt like now that the South has it, New York,
• 9:37
  Speaker 1: cause that's how they think New York, not just not,
• 9:41
  Speaker 1: but New York feels like the game is whack. And,
• 9:46
  Speaker 1: It wasn't whack because the South had it. It was
• 9:48
  Speaker 1: whack because whack rappers were the most popular rappers in
• 9:54
  Speaker 1: the game. And if it was so good, where are
• 9:58
  Speaker 1: they now? And we're not talking about the ones we know.
• 10:01
  Speaker 1: We know Jeezy was dope. We know T.I. was dope, Luda.
• 10:05
  Speaker 1: You know who we talking about, ringtone rappers. They ain't around.
• 10:09
  Speaker 1: Don't pretend like, nah, I still be buying Hurricane Chris. No,
• 10:12
  Speaker 1: you don't. No, you don't. You got it for your
• 10:15
  Speaker 1: little phone when you was a little kid. So when
• 10:17
  Speaker 1: somebody calls you, you know, you got, you know, whatever,
• 10:21
  Speaker 1: the Halle Berry on there, whatever. Right. But also when
• 10:26
  Speaker 1: hip hop is dead came out, I was like, nah,
• 10:29
  Speaker 1: this ain't it. I thought Nas was just going to
• 10:32
  Speaker 1: like hardcore hip hop it. And it was a lot
• 10:35
  Speaker 1: of hit and miss like untitled. Right. And I think
• 10:40
  Speaker 1: the same thing goes for, For his last album, Light Years,
• 10:45
  Speaker 1: an album we've been waiting for forever. Nas on premiere
• 10:51
  Speaker 1: production every track. And it was hit or miss. And
• 10:57
  Speaker 1: the concept there was more so, it was sort of
• 11:01
  Speaker 1: like a homage to a lot of things, really. But
• 11:04
  Speaker 1: it felt like traditional hip hop, like with songs like
• 11:07
  Speaker 1: Writers and Pause Tapes. And those are some of the
• 11:11
  Speaker 1: better records. But there was a lot that missed there, right?
• 11:15
  Speaker 1: Like New York State of Mind 3. After hearing the
• 11:18
  Speaker 1: original and then hearing part two on I Am, which
• 11:24
  Speaker 1: is crazy underrated Nas record. I don't know why people
• 11:28
  Speaker 1: never talk about that record. The way Premier flipped that
• 11:32
  Speaker 1: beat and what Nas was saying, that was a worthy
• 11:35
  Speaker 1: successor to the original New York State of Mind. But
• 11:38
  Speaker 1: New York State of Mind 3? trash so I kind
• 11:45
  Speaker 1: of feel like when Nas takes these stances especially when
• 11:52
  Speaker 1: he lets you know ahead of time and an album's
• 11:56
  Speaker 1: coming to represent his thoughts and feelings on that I
• 12:02
  Speaker 1: just get scared because it's the albums that we don't
• 12:08
  Speaker 1: anticipate that are the ones that are hot like The
• 12:13
  Speaker 1: Nas and Hit-Boy run. No one could have anticipated that
• 12:18
  Speaker 1: many albums mostly being dope, right? Even the ones that
• 12:23
  Speaker 1: aren't as crazy as the others, they're not bad. And
• 12:31
  Speaker 1: what's the other one? Life is good, right? Life is good.
• 12:35
  Speaker 1: You can't really anticipate anything about that, but that album
• 12:37
  Speaker 1: turned out to be really dope. And I think what
• 12:42
  Speaker 1: it is, is when Nas starts, you know, saying, yo,
• 12:47
  Speaker 1: we got to do this. Like when he speaks out
• 12:49
  Speaker 1: like this, sometimes it doesn't pan out. And like I said,
• 12:53
  Speaker 1: he talked about hip hop is dead. And everybody was like, yo,
• 12:56
  Speaker 1: and then he had to cover, you know, he had
• 12:59
  Speaker 1: the old like Illmatic outfit basically on. Kind of looked
• 13:03
  Speaker 1: like Stillmatic, but it was all black with the black
• 13:05
  Speaker 1: rose and the gray. I thought that album was going
• 13:07
  Speaker 1: to be crazy. And it was not. Uh, he had
• 13:12
  Speaker 1: the untitled album, which was originally going to be called nigger. Right.
• 13:17
  Speaker 1: With a hard, uh, whatever your way I say, you
• 13:20
  Speaker 1: know what I'm talking about? Um, and the original cover,
• 13:26
  Speaker 1: even though the cover that came out, it was even
• 13:28
  Speaker 1: doper to me as far as, you know, um, basically
• 13:31
  Speaker 1: making a statement. I thought that out. I was like, yo,
• 13:34
  Speaker 1: Nas basically making a conscious album. when he's clearly, I mean,
• 13:40
  Speaker 1: he's talked about material, but Nas is clearly more of
• 13:44
  Speaker 1: a conscious rapper than anything. I was like, this is
• 13:47
  Speaker 1: going to be crazy. And then I heard that like, uh,
• 13:51
  Speaker 1: rule the world or around the world. And I was like, nah,
• 13:53
  Speaker 1: what is this? Why is this on here? You know
• 13:56
  Speaker 1: what I'm saying? So, and again, DJ premier. So like
• 14:02
  Speaker 1: him talking about the concept and, what the album's going
• 14:07
  Speaker 1: to be. And even though here he's not announcing an album,
• 14:10
  Speaker 1: I'm reading into it. Okay. But if you're going to say,
• 14:16
  Speaker 1: while working on music and talking about like how you,
• 14:21
  Speaker 1: how you're seeing the game and how people are forgetting
• 14:24
  Speaker 1: the foundation, I'm kind of getting excited because I'm like, yeah, that's,
• 14:30
  Speaker 1: that's what we want. And the last thing I'll say is,
• 14:34
  Speaker 1: Not to say he's going to make this type of
• 14:37
  Speaker 1: an album, but when he's sitting there talking about, I
• 14:40
  Speaker 1: think about Robert Johnson at the Crossroads and how he
• 14:43
  Speaker 1: changed music. And what else did he say? Again, looking
• 14:51
  Speaker 1: at all artists and creators, executives the same way, how
• 14:56
  Speaker 1: our greats were ripped off from, making music for the
• 15:00
  Speaker 1: sake of trends. He's saying a lot that tells me
• 15:04
  Speaker 1: musically this album may be a lot of things and
• 15:09
  Speaker 1: you know what album to me was the last to
• 15:11
  Speaker 1: truly do that to pimp a butterfly and I know
• 15:16
  Speaker 1: some people didn't like it initially but then loved it
• 15:20
  Speaker 1: some people like myself loved it instantly because it was
• 15:25
  Speaker 1: it was just a gathering of black music without you
• 15:30
  Speaker 1: know being on the nose with it right of banging
• 15:33
  Speaker 1: you over the head constantly telling you this is black
• 15:36
  Speaker 1: culture this is black music right um it just did
• 15:40
  Speaker 1: it there's there's funk there's jazz there's spoken word in
• 15:44
  Speaker 1: there there's songs that make you feel like you know
• 15:48
  Speaker 1: the spirit of james brown is in it the way
• 15:50
  Speaker 1: he's rhyming is other songs where he's straight up compton
• 15:54
  Speaker 1: there's uh all right which became a protest record the cover,
• 15:59
  Speaker 1: you know what I'm saying? We're all black men, all
• 16:02
  Speaker 1: different ages in front of the white house. Like that
• 16:06
  Speaker 1: felt like an album that represented black culture and getting
• 16:10
  Speaker 1: back to the roots. So hearing Nas talk about it,
• 16:14
  Speaker 1: you know, while saying he's working on music and it's
• 16:17
  Speaker 1: time to address it, you know, and again, you don't
• 16:20
  Speaker 1: say it's time to address it. If you ain't going
• 16:22
  Speaker 1: to be a part of the people addressing it, you know,
• 16:25
  Speaker 1: you need more than a note. Um, And the other
• 16:29
  Speaker 1: album before we go out, the other album reminds me
• 16:32
  Speaker 1: of as far as like what he's saying is Robert
• 16:36
  Speaker 1: Glasper's Black Radio. That did a lot for the jazz
• 16:42
  Speaker 1: slash R & B side, soul side of music, because
• 16:47
  Speaker 1: it was it was a celebration of. of all the things, right.
• 16:52
  Speaker 1: All the artists he collaborated on and with, you know,
• 16:56
  Speaker 1: the sounds and music, the influences, some Jay Dilla influences,
• 16:59
  Speaker 1: some influences outside of our initial culture, right. Just putting
• 17:04
  Speaker 1: our twist on it. It was a very dope album.
• 17:07
  Speaker 1: And I kind of feel like when I read this
• 17:09
  Speaker 1: from Nas, I think about all of that. I think
• 17:13
  Speaker 1: about him musically today versus the past, you know, um,
• 17:19
  Speaker 1: To Pimp a Butterfly, Black Radio, and even, because I
• 17:24
  Speaker 1: think a lot of people slept on this, Salam Remy
• 17:27
  Speaker 1: released like a compilation album, I think around 2020, 2021.
• 17:30
  Speaker 1: That was really dope. But that also feels like a
• 17:34
  Speaker 1: celebration of Black music and getting back to the roots.
• 17:39
  Speaker 1: So we'll see what Nas does. Maybe I just talk
• 17:43
  Speaker 1: Salam Remy up. Maybe he reunites with him. I don't
• 17:46
  Speaker 1: know if I like that. But, Nevertheless, I feel a
• 17:53
  Speaker 1: shadow drop because I feel like Nas knew what he
• 17:59
  Speaker 1: did with Premiere was dope and it happened, but the
• 18:05
  Speaker 1: reaction wasn't what they wanted, you know, compared to the
• 18:10
  Speaker 1: reactions of other albums that were released, especially from him.
• 18:13
  Speaker 1: And I feel like he wants another shot at making
• 18:18
  Speaker 1: something meaningful that people will, you know, get excited for.
• 18:22
  Speaker 1: So what do you think? You know, do you think
• 18:25
  Speaker 1: Nas was just making a general statement to the state
• 18:29
  Speaker 1: of the record industry and artists and music and culture?
• 18:33
  Speaker 1: Or do you think he was doing that, but he
• 18:35
  Speaker 1: was also foreshadowing a new album? Leave your comments in
• 18:41
  Speaker 1: the comment section below on YouTube. Follow me. everywhere on
• 18:45
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• 19:15
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• 19:25
  Speaker 1: Until next time, I'm not a critic. I'm a fan. Peace.