In a conference call with Def Jam yesterday, Nas spoke on a variety of topics, including his upcoming album Life Is Good, the singles off the album, Trayvon Martin, NFL Draft & more. Nas couldn't confirm any features on his album, however he confirmed No. I.D. as a producer along with Salaam Remi and Da Internz. Read some of what Nas spoke on below.
On how the single "The Don" came together:
"Man, you know, Salaam sent me a track.. nah, he played it for me over the phone, and when he played it, you know, I heard Super Cat voice in it, you know I like Super Cat, always liked Super Cat. So, I kinda had an idea of what I wanted to do with it, you know what I mean. [I] got to working on it and stuff, we kept playing it over, it felt like a single. When Heav [Heavy D] died, Salaam called me and said, "Yo man, you know who gave me that beat?" And I'm like, in my mind I'm thinking cause Heav just died, he gotta be talking about Heav, I'm like "who?" He's like "Heav," I'm like "Wow," it just took on a whole new level."
On the NFL Draft:
"NFL Draft coming up, we put "Don" with it, "Don" is the perfect song to go with the whole Draft thing 'cause they come to Radio City to go to the Draft and people from all over the nation driving to my city, so you know, we felt like wehnt hey approached us about doing something with it, "Don" was just coming out and we played it for 'em and they was with it, so we did that and a cut, another track from off my album that noone's ever heard. And I did something that they produced too. So we shot the video up in the city, or the commerical for the songs, that I put together for the NFL Draft."
On Trayvon Martin & Hip-Hop's Responsibility:
"Ah man, I really don't have a real great answer for that, you know, it's just, a conversation that we're all having. You know, it's a Trayvon Martin every day, every other day; its been going on since the beginning of America. So it's just amazing that this young man, his life has become something to pull us all together to try to like protest against the sickness of racism. You know, it's just sad that someone this young had to come to that kinda cowardice balance you know what I'm sayin? Hip-hop having a responibility? Of course. Hip-hop has many responsibilities, and does hip-hop as a whole? No. no. There's too much going on for hip-hop as a whole to focus on one thing, but yeah, why not, Trayvon was hip-hop, you know what I'm saying, he was one of us, so of course we have a responsibility to do something, you know what I mean?"
