Hip-hop legend Nas reflects on the 50-year history of rap music, how successful his career has been, his recent creative freedom, and more.
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00:00 Going into the Garden to do my own show was like, you know,
00:05 one of the greatest moments of my life.
00:08 You know, you thought you did shows before,
00:09 you thought you did tours, you did all these great things.
00:13 But being a New Yorker and playing in the Garden
00:15 and selling it out is a dream.
00:18 I think it's every kid from New York's dream.
00:20 ♪ It's yours ♪
00:25 ♪ Whose world is this? ♪
00:27 ♪ The world is yours ♪
00:28 ♪ The world is yours ♪
00:29 ♪ It's mine, it's mine, it's mine ♪
00:30 ♪ Whose world is this? ♪
00:33 No one could front on what the Bronx
00:35 has brought to the table earlier.
00:37 The whole New York was doing hip hop,
00:39 but no one, I think, was doing it on a level of the Bronx.
00:44 At that time, nah.
00:46 With this lyric that KRS once said,
00:48 "It isn't even 20 years old, 50 years down the line
00:52 "we can start this, and we'll be the old school artists."
00:56 ♪ And even in that time, I'll say a lot ♪
00:58 Like, he saw it, he saw it.
01:01 And it was like artists from that era
01:03 was fighting for hip hop to live.
01:07 So to see that we're here and it survived,
01:11 and it's thriving, I think that's a beautiful thing.
01:14 And then for younger artists who are just like 20 years old
01:17 to realize the history that comes,
01:19 that was there, that was laid down,
01:22 for them to look at it and go, "Wow, look at this.
01:25 "This is a long history. This has deep roots.
01:28 "And this is a great, beautiful history
01:30 "they should be proud of."
01:32 I recently saw an interview with Ice Cube,
01:35 and he was talking about the East Coast/West Coast feud
01:38 didn't start with Big N' Pop.
01:40 It was kind of before that.
01:42 It was just normal territorial vibes.
01:46 It's just, "We represent this, y'all represent that."
01:49 And, you know, battle.
01:51 The essence of hip hop is also battle.
01:54 So everything was competitive.
01:56 New York was on they bullshit,
01:58 and West Coast was on they bullshit,
02:00 and the South, and so on.
02:02 So to have everybody there together
02:05 is what the birth of hip hop should be about.
02:08 It shouldn't be just one region.
02:10 It shouldn't be one borough.
02:12 It shouldn't just be one city.
02:14 It shouldn't be one-- everybody should be together.
02:17 ♪ Better hear the story how the thugs live in worry ♪
02:20 ♪ Duck down in car seats, heaps of money, jory ♪
02:23 The streets are the streets,
02:25 and we listen to music from people
02:29 directly from those circumstances,
02:32 young kids that are making hit records
02:34 telling you what's happening.
02:36 Once these artists get into the game
02:38 and realize you're changing the life,
02:40 you're changing your life, you're changing your family's life
02:43 and the future is to come.
02:45 If you can stay alive and stay out of jail,
02:48 that seems like some easy things to do.
02:51 But when you're fresh from that,
02:54 it's all you know.
02:56 So it takes some time to really believe.
02:59 You don't trust somebody who's been rich for 20 years
03:01 to tell you to chill out
03:03 when you just came from an environment
03:05 where nobody's on chill.
03:07 You think they over the hill.
03:09 They don't know what they're talking about.
03:11 It's going to take a lot of work.
03:13 ♪ Baby, baby ♪
03:15 ♪ Bye baby, I guess you know why I had to leave ♪
03:18 ♪ Seven months in your pregnancy, 'bout to have my seed ♪
03:21 Whoever got far coming from zero,
03:24 I love to hear them talk
03:26 because you find out you can relate
03:28 to a lot of things they have to say,
03:30 and then you realize that what's in them,
03:32 it's also in you,
03:34 but you also have your own unique thing.
03:36 So some people you might think are smarter than you,
03:38 you realize, nah,
03:40 I think I look at this differently.
03:43 I think I'm not smarter,
03:45 but I'm not the dumbest guy in the room.
03:49 And that's what you realize
03:51 when you're around smart people.
03:53 You're not far off.
03:55 You think that you're far off,
03:57 and you don't know what's going on, but you do.
03:59 In most cases, you know more than the people
04:01 you thought were smarter than you.
04:03 A lot of people come to me and say,
04:05 "We've taken your approach and taken your this,
04:07 and we've become successful doing this and that other."
04:10 And that is something that I never saw happening.
04:14 I was used to people hearing my music,
04:16 and if they liked it, they told me,
04:18 but seeing my business moves
04:20 and wanting to do those things,
04:22 I'm like, I'm doing more
04:24 than I ever thought I'd be doing for people.
04:27 And I'm speechless about it.
04:29 It's beautiful.
04:31 ♪ Stand above the surface, another purchase ♪
04:33 ♪ I know my purpose, hopping out in retro Jordan 1 ♪
04:36 It's a great experience for me to work with a West Coast
04:39 or California producer who makes records
04:42 that sound like New York producers did them,
04:46 'cause it's just an art thing.
04:48 He can make that, he can do music that sounds like--
04:51 he can have me rapping on West Coast stuff,
04:54 and he does it where it still sounds like me.
04:57 That's the magic.
04:59 ♪
05:01 I'm gonna do what I wanna do now,
05:04 and it's the freedom of creating records
05:07 because I just feel like it.
05:09 It's a hobby to me now to go to work.
05:12 I don't know how long it'll last, this feeling I have.
05:16 I don't know how long my feeling for making music
05:19 the way I feel now is gonna last,
05:22 but I'm going for it at the moment.
05:24 And it's making me have so much fun.
05:28 I want more people to join me for my era.
05:31 I want them to join in releasing records,
05:35 working hard on them shits.
05:37 I wanna hear how people feel. I wanna hear their art.
05:40 I don't wanna hear the trends. I wanna hear the art.
05:43 Express it. Do it. Be free.
05:46 And that's what I'm trying to give to the game now
05:50 is that, straight up. Just be free with it.
05:54 I don't pay attention to anything
05:56 except what I'm doing at this point
05:59 because I'm having so much fun
06:02 that I don't even look up to see what's going on.
06:06 So I could say I never had this amount of fun,
06:09 but I had a lot of fun in my life and in the business.
06:13 But, I mean, this feels unmatched.
06:16 This feeling is unmatched.
06:18 [Music]