S. Samuel
Rap veteran Nas recently shared his thoughts on the state of hip-hop and dished out an important reason why aspiring artists should not to want to reach stardom so fast.
In Nasty Nas’ perspective, experiencing the good and the bad of the industry is all a part of reaching the rap game’s peak.
“I started to dislike the fact that people were making money, more than liking the state of music,” Nas said in an interview. “I started to appreciate that maybe ‘that guy’ may not be great, maybe he can feed his family now. I started to feeling like that. … I feel like the young guys really want to make a difference, they really want to make careers for themselves and really care about the culture. Not all of them but there’s a good group of guys out there that really care about it. … There’s a lot of confusion in the game because they want to go from just starting to be on a Tupac level. And there’s a lot of ground to cover before they get to that and they don’t hear that and if they would take the time to appreciate that path to go — you don’t want to miss the dash. That’s a good time. That’s a good time right there. It might be a little scary, it might be a little nervous at times but at the end of the day, once you make it to the point of being around for a while, you’ll appreciate the struggle.” (92Y)
A few weeks ago, The Fugees’ Wyclef Jean spoke on Young Money star Lil Wayne proclaiming himself the new Pac during an NBA All-Star Weekend rant in Houston.
“Once again, that’s his opinion,” Clef said when asked about Weezy declaring himself the new Pac. “At the end of the day, that’s his opinion. He can feel that. Personally, I had a chance to be in a room with 2Pac and he’s a character by himself. [Do I see a resemblance?] No, no, no. I see Lil Wayne in a league by himself. I see 2Pac in a league by himself. 2Pac reminded me a little bit of the Fugees in this sense, if you pick up the Fugees’ first album, after we got that check from the record company, the album was called Blunted On Reality, the first song on the album, we was talking about, ‘We black folks ain’t taking this sh*t from the Ku Klux Klan no more.’ It’s a young generation and f*ck the KKK. Before you blow up, the fact you don’t know if you’re going to make it and your first statement is just based on the vibe.” (Shade 45)
Last month, Wayne raised eyebrows by declaring himself the new Shakur.
“Y’all love these n*ggas so I’m gonna let y’all know why [I don’t like the Heat]. The Miami Heat told [the arenas] to ban me. So I say f*ck, I’m still going to come out here and party — when I say ‘F*ck,’ y’all say ‘NBA’. F*ck! When I say ‘F*ck,’ y’all say the Miami Heat. F*ck! … I ain’t 2Pac, I’m the new Pac. Holla at cha boy.” (YouTube)
A couple years ago, the Young Money leader revealed he fell in love with tattoos because of the late West Coast legend.
“I have no problem with people going and getting a billion tattoos,” Weezy said in a video. “But why are you doing it? I know my first tattoo I got, I got because my dad died. I was 14 years old and I knew, not for nothing, God forgive me, I did want to represent my dad in a way but I knew that, ‘Man, I could get my first tattoo at 14 if I asked my mom, ‘Can I go get my dad’s name?’ She’s not gonna be against that.’ … The next tattoo that I got said ‘Original Hot Boy’ with a star…Then I went and got my tat across my stomach ’cause I wanted to be like Tupac. I got my [stomach] tattoo because I wanted to be like Tupac and at the time, I would tell the tattoo dude that’s why I was getting it.” (Derick G)
Check out Nas’ interview:
