Nas Says, “The Good Die Young…”
Nas
Last night, native Queens rapper Nas had an one-on-on interview with CNN’s Don Lemon about his “Open Letter to Young Warriors.”
The interview started with Nas’ lyrics to “Shoot Em Up” and followed with critical questions about rap’s influence on young minds, the tragic case of Derrion Albert and how Nas’ fellow hip-hop peers play a role in the lives of everyday people.
In cased you missed the interview, catch it here:
Nas says, “I’m not going to change my music to make it more positive, because that’s not real. I have to make what’s real.”
The hip-hop legend then followed up by saying, “We love them…” referring to “them” as the people and the rap musicians being the “we”.
Let us know how you feel about Nas’ thoughts. Do you agree with his ideology and perspective?
Popularity: 2%
I had no idea about this interview! Thanks for posting.
Now that I have actually seen the interview, I’m very glad that Nas said what he said about his music and about what songs are selected whenever he’s mentioned or featured on the news. You have songs like “I Can,” “Black Girl Lost,” “I Gave You Power,” and countless others (especially off his last album) that dealt with so many of these issues directly. It would be nice if he was interviewed by someone who actually was familiar with his discography and could therefore talk to him in a more informed context. He even had the record “Not Going Back” about how he refuses to go back to the hood because of the way things are there. However, while street violence is very real, there is quite an influence on young people by rappers.
As Common once said,
“Hip hop, yo, to me
played a fatherly role.”
Represent the real, but don’t be afraid to imagine and encourage an environment where drugs, violence, and abuse are not the way or the answer. I think that most rappers will, as Nas has, continue to evolve as they get older and get out of the situations that first influenced their music. We don’t have the time to wait for that, though. The sooner people start to raise their children instead of television and the radio, the better.