![]() By his own admission (ironically on the first Lost Tapes, no less) he was a slave to Columbia Records. So to start off with “Nas is NOBODY’s slave” and “this is not the 1800’s” leads me to believe that something has gone terribly wrong in Nas-land. In fact, much of his career has been devoted to illuminating slavery in contemporary American society. Gong lament the current state of shared oppression experienced in the States, Africa and throughout the contemporary world. Check out Distant Relatives, which was released just this year. For more than 15 years Nas has given us gems which describe neo-colonialism and its oppressive tendencies, and its ongoing impact on the real lives of millions of starving, dying people all over the world. If there’s one theme that Nas has championed in his catalogue, it is the notion that slavery is still very (very) real, both in the lives of black folk in America and throughout the diaspora. This is not the 1800′s, respect me and I will respect you.” The email opens up as follows: “With all do respect to you all, Nas is NOBODY’s slave. They are listed here, in no particular order. In the wake of initial doubts of authenticity and stubborn clouds of denial from those of us who grew up on Nas, three things have become abundantly clear. In the first week of October an email claiming to be from Nas to record executives at his label (Def Jam) made its rounds on the internets. ![]() That said, it is with genuine concern and great sadness that I’m about to say what has to be said. It’s no secret: I am not the biggest Nas fan in the world.īut I do have a tremendous amount of respect for the brother, and I count him among the dopest emcees to ever do it. “ There is no such thing as a record deal.“ And that’s how Nas got signed to Columbia.”ġ5 years later, Nas would drop “Surviving the Times” off his 2007 Greatest Hits, where he reminisced about his early rap career, including Russell passing on him.The views and opinions expressed in the following feature editorial are those expressly of the writer of this piece and do not necessarily reflect those of HipHopDX. The record executive stopped the demo halfway through the first song and said “I’ve been looking for Nas, trying to get in touch with him.” Serch recalls, “they literally wouldn’t let me leave the Columbia office until we had a deal in place for Nas. I played Nas’ demo-which was “It Ain’t Hard To Tell,” “Halftime” and “I’m A Villain”-and Russell said, “Ah, he sounds like G Rap, and G Rap don’t sell no records, I’m not interested.” MC Serch Always Knew Nas’ ‘Illmatic’ Was The Greatest Album Of All Time | XXL MagĪfter Russell passed on Nas, Serch brought the young Queensbridge rapper over to Faith Newman at Columbia. Then I went to see Russell, and Russell was at his apartment with a woman named Tracey Waples. In an interview with XXL, Serch recalls Russell’s reaction: One of them was Def Jam, which at the time was seen as the seminal hip hop record label, run by Russell Simmons. Linking up MC Serch, who signed Nas to his company Serchlite and became his manager, the pair went demo shopping to different record labels. You think of Illmatic his beef with Jay Z, “Hate Me Now” and “Nas Is Like”, and if you’re interested, of his recent tech investments which are on track to make him more money than music did.īut back in the early ’90s, Nas was just a supremely talented yet raw rapper who had a ton of buzz thanks to his appearances on Main Source’s “Live at the Barbeque” and MC Serch’s “Back to the Grill,” as well as his debut single “Halftime” which appeared on the Zebrahead soundtrack. When you think about Nas today, you think of a legendary rapper who arguably be in everyone’s top five greatest of all time list.
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