Videos
Nas and Damian Marley – As We Enter
“As We Enter”, the first official single from “Distant Relatives”, the hugely anticipated album from Nas and Damian JR. Gong Marley, will be released on May 24th through Island Records.
“Distant Relatives” is an album created by two great artists to explore and celebrate the deep-rooted connections between reggae and hip hop, tracing both sounds back to the African motherland that is both the cradle of humanity and the wellspring of mankind’s music. Unlike all previous collaborations between Jamaican and American artists, “Distant Relatives” is neither a remix nor a featured guest spot on a single track but a fully collaborative effort filling an entire album, opening new avenues of musical expression.
The youngest son of the legendary Bob Marley, Damian “Jr. Gong” Marley exploded onto the music scene in 2005 with the release of his wildly acclaimed “Welcome To Jamrock” single and album. The record earned him two Grammy awards the first for Best Reggae album while the second, for Best Urban/Alternative performance for the single “Welcome To Jamrock”, made Damian the first ever reggae artist to win a Grammy outside of the Reggae category.
A hip-hop legend since his immortal guest verse on Main Source’s 1991 “Live At The Barbeque,” Nas burst out of the Queensbridge housing projects, a hotbed of rap artistry since the early ’80s. The son of jazz trumpeter Olu Dara, Nas, universally hailed as one of the greatest hip hop artists of all time, has since gone on to sell over 20 million albums worldwide, and has acted as an ambassador for hip-hop culture throughout the globe.
“When we first started working, I was thinking about what direction we should go in,” Nas explained during a recent discussion at the Grammy Museum. “Cause it’s all kinda like the same—reggae, rap. But it went to its own thing… We had a few concepts. All basically around empowerment in a way, cause if we’re talking about Distant Relatives we’re talking about the human family”
“I didn’t want it to sound like something that would be typical of me, neither typical of Nas,” said Damian Marley, who produced much of the album. “But something where you can still see how there’s a middle ground in the music. But where you can still hear something that is reminiscent of either of us… It’s been really fun. Cause we’ve been going in the booth together. Especially as a lyricist, it’s really like iron sharpened iron. You can’t slack off right now. It’s a great experience. And a learning experience for me too.” And the learning experience extends to young listeners who will surely be enlightened and educated about the shared cultural legacy of Africa, America, and the Caribbean.