09年MTV颁奖的时候Nas说自己要和Damian Marley在六月发行新专辑《Distant Relatives》（《远亲》），六月马上就要过去了，一个试听版本的As We Are今天流出，大概也就意味着离发行日期越来越近了，60秒。听听看。

6.27更新Kanye West上放出的preview视频，有兴趣的看一下。

The album’s content will heavily revolve around Africa, from ancestry and poverty. The duo worked to maintain the theme, which will contain samples from African music.The album will offer their social commentary of the United States and Africa.<Wikipedia.org>

Nas & Damian Marley – As We Are

Background Prerview:

C-Sick, 90后，只有18岁今年。参加了2009年美国红牛举办的“Big Tune”比赛，beat battle。最后胜出。Nas的最新单曲则由他一手操办。

直接听曲子，看图片，学英文吧。

对了，C-Sick不是黑人。

创作背景，引用自MySpace：

A seasoned hip-hop vet welcomes a rookie into the game

Self-proclaimed “’90s baby” Charles “C-Sick” Dumazer is an unashamed product of the Internet era.

At only 18 years old, this emerging hip-hop beatmaker out of Chicago never learned how to use an ASR or MPC or even how to dig for vinyl. “I’m just very digital—very digital,” says the reserved producer who searches for songs and sounds on Google to sample. But in just a little over two years since producing his first beats on the demo version of Fruity Loops Studios, C-Sick already finds himself sitting across from legendary hip-hop lyricist Nas, ready to record his first commercial single.

The rookie’s rise to such a notable collaboration didn’t exactly fall in his lap. This high school senior has proven to be a fast learner and is beginning to pay his dues working with local MCs like Peeda Pan and GLC. And it’s his lifetime exposure to hip-hop and all music—first in the South of France then in the South Side of Chicago—that has helped him develop an ear for quality, sample-based tracks. In particular Chicago juke is the high-bpm sound that help shape the producer’s initial work. “When I came to Chicago [at age 10], juke music was always around me,” he says. “It was like a culture, it was a lifestyle, and you couldn’t be away from it.”

The beats that won C-Sick the Chicago leg of Red Bull Big Tune beat battle last year and the finals in New York weren’t entirely juke-heavy, though. Instead, the then 17-year-old captured the crowd with his mid-tempo heaters, which were a mix of bouncy soul-backed beats and heavy-hitting Just Blaze–inspired backdrops. “I’m trying to be creative and try to bring our [Chicago] flavor in producing ‘cause we sample just like on the East Coast a lot, but there’s always a little twist to it,” he says.

On a cool April night at Red Bull Studios in Santa Monica, Calif., C-Sick’s ability to meld classic East Coast sample-based sensibilities with Chicago’s penchant for percussion is proving to be a formula that even Nas can appreciate. As part of C-Sick’s prize for winning Big Tune 2008, he was awarded the opportunity to work with the Queensbridge-bred MC. And now he’s playing beats for Nas off of FL Studios 7 on his Toshiba laptop that sound impressive booming from the Genelec speakers.

While Nas was sent some of C-Sick’s beats ahead of time, the instrumental that was ultimately chosen was selected on the spot. As Nas recalls of the process, “Everything he’s playing me is good, but he told me he had something that he had just made for me—a beat that he really heard me on.”

That custom beat didn’t have the robust quality of the tracks he played at Red Bull Big Tune—instead, it was a crisp, emotive instrumental featuring subtle strings and guitar samples. When I talk to C-Sick about the choice, we both agree that it’s the perfect beat for Nas. C-Sick explains that the track wasn’t that heavy because he wanted to let Nas’ signature vocals complete the song. “His flow is a melody,” the producer says. “When I made the beat, I thought of Nas—I needed that extra melody.”

Before the recording could commence, C-Sick had to get a crash course in live production. Coming from a self-taught, laptop-based production experience, he was a little lost initially when Big Tune co-founders and session assistants Jake One and Vitamin D told him that the bass on the beat wasn’t going to work and that he needed to replace it using a synth. But after Vitamin set up an M-Audio Axiom 49, C-Sick quickly got in the zone, played the proper keys and the single was on its way.

When asking Nas about the analog era of recording and how he feels about the difference of working with computer-exclusive producers such as C-Sick, he actually prefers the efficiency of digital technology. “With digital, it’s a lot faster, it’s a lot easier—so it’s all good,” Nas says. “There’s probably a sound difference between digital and analog, but I haven’t figured it out yet so I just keep it moving.”

At the end of day, Nas hit the nail on the head. The fact the C-Sick hadn’t used any physical production equipment is irrelevant—it’s what comes from his work on FL Studios or whatever platform he uses that counts. Since Nas has already expressed interest in working with the rookie again, clearly C-Sick is onto something.

At one point in the night I ask C-Sick if he’s overwhelmed by the thought of using Digidesign Pro Tools and a gigantic Solid State Logic console like the one at Red Bull, and while humble, he also seems ready for anything. “I’m sure I’ll be able to pick it up,” he says. “Pro Tools could be the same way [as learning FL Studios]. It’d be like riding a bike, really.”

以上。

为了庆祝NEXUSVII七周年以及12月8日Nas在东京的高票房演唱会成功，Stussy Japan发布了三方合作的新款式，并于在日本的各个门店销售，Stussy自己的销售网络只出售白色款式，推出的黑色版本则只能在Nexus VII的旗舰店VLACK购买到（当然网店也可以）。有兴趣的同志们可以买一件，虽然不是太好看吧。

 

上周2的时候Nas那经历了无数争议而创作出的最新专辑Untitled发售，几天后他与Fila的合作鞋也终于面世。虽然整体上沿用了Fila经典鞋款的样式，但是还是采用了Fila最新的专利皮革制造。共有四钟颜色，80UDS一双，仅仅限于各地的Foot Locker…国内还没有呃，Sheffield可是N家@@…

Nas的新专辑就要上架了，专辑名称由之前备受争议的’Nigger’改成了’Nas’，封面也已经流出。最新的单曲Hero则于日前发布。听听看。

A Classic Joint, LOL.

Nas could have easily looked at his enduring legacy in hip hop, sat back, relaxed and gave himself a congratulatory pat on the back. He could have easily gone the way of several legendary MCs whose flow got lethargic and stale and decided instead of deciding to push forward took a long deep look into the past. No one would have blamed him either. He would easily go down as one of the most poetic influential important street poets to ever lay his voice on wax not just in Hip Hop but in music in general. But as Nas stated on the intro to his Stillmatic album “They thought I’ll make another Illmatic/but it’s always forward I’m moving stupid never backwards here’s another classic.” This is the feeling that has summed up the later part of Nas’ career.

Just about every album he has dropped in the new millennium has either been thoughtfully penned beautifully tragic pieces like the slightly somber “God’s Son” penned in the wake of his mother’s death, or an affirmation of his hardcore gritty NY rap roots with the double album “Streets Disciple”, or the intentionally controversial titled semi concept album “Hip Hop is Dead”. Just the titles alone shows an artist hell bent on leaving a huge dent in hip hop before he bows out. His new album was to be titled the most offensive racial epithet ever uttered (yes that one). Although Nas changed the album title to simply “Nas” he assured the fans that the content will be just as politically charged and incendiary as the former album title conveys. One look at the cover of the new album the viewer gets an incredibly powerful statement that an entire music career or volumes of books for that matter couldn’t convey. If the new album dropping July 1st is half as powerful as the album cover, we’re in for another classic.

No matter whom your candidate of choice is in the 2008 election, the reverberations of change and history could be felt a few nights ago when Barack Obama took the stage in St. Paul and announced that he is the presumptive nominee for the democratic party. Since the beginning of hip hop music MCs have used beats and rhymes as a platform to voice descent, opinion and protest. However, the actual political process of conducting a campaign for a candidate has been few and far in-between. There has always been a pervasive feeling amongst the urban community that politicians are non-responsive to their problems or concerns. Therefore, advocating for a president seemed useless or even counterproductive.

However, this seemed to all wash away since Obama, the first African American democratic nominee, first announced his candidacy as several MCs took to the studio to pen rhymes as inspirational as the man himself. The most notable pro Obama song so far is Will I Am’s “Yes We Can” which was actually featured at several Obama rallies. Now one of the most outspoken MCs on the political front, Nas takes on the subject matter with his release “Black President”. The DJ Green Lantern Produced track splices parts of Obama’s speeches as Nas lends his poetical prose to a thoughtful track about the possibility of the first black president.

Listen to the track [HERE]

or

Nas – Black President

Quoted from hypebeast.