Nas Speaks On Mixtape and Album

Artists: Nas and DJ Green Lantern

Representing: Queens

Mixtape: The N—– Tape

411: “This sh– is gonna have the streets right [and] have the streets ready for the album.” ‘Nuff said about Nas’ new mixtape, The N—– Tape. Nas and DJ Green Lantern recently forged one of the best street CDs this year. Nas had to go through his vault and give up some rare and unused vocals to the Evil Genius, who created soundscapes around the words for soil-burning songs.

“I was like, ‘Let me get some exclusives. I wanna make a movie,’ ” Green said of the project.
Source: http://www.mtv.com/news/articles/158…20/jay_z.jhtml

“We went to the studio, and this man’s work speaks for itself,” Nas said. “He gave me some of the joints. Some of the joints sounded like they were right for the album. I had to snatch them for the album. We really getting it done. It’s coming out right.”

Sure enough, some of Green’s material will find its way onto Nas’ untitled official LP on July 15.

“One and a half,” Lantern said about how many records will appear on the opus. ” ‘Black President’ is on there. There’s another one called ‘Like Me.’ It was supposed to be for the mixtape. He gave me a cappellas that wasn’t out yet. I made a song around it. New beat, had somebody come and make a hook. It’s like some pimp sh–. Nas loved it. He put another verse on it and said, ‘I need it for my album. Don’t put it on the mixtape.’ When they did the final cut of the album, [‘Like Me’] got cut, but it’s on the international release and the iTunes and Amazon.com exclusive.”

Joints To Check For

» “Cops Keep Firing.” “I took the a cappella and made a verse, then Nas added an extra verse, because he was so inspired,” Green Lantern explained.

“I had the rhymes for this last year,” Nas added. “But I didn’t want to do this kind of record until this man made me see this is the type of record I need to do.”

» “Gangsta Rap” remix. “[Nas] said a couple of things in the verse I thought was good to start the tape off with,” Green Lantern said. “I made a beat to kinda let his raps breathe so he could be rhyming. I wanted to let the rhymes say what it needed to. The beat wasn’t too busy, but the beat was still hard. I wanted it to be a nice opener. Normally, somebody would start the tape with something people never heard before. I said, ‘I’m just gonna do it.’ That was really for the Nas fans, the rap zombies that are on top of everything.”

» “Legendary.” “Salaam Remi … is scoring the [Mike] Tyson documentary,” Green said. “Him and Nas have a great relationship, obviously, so maybe that will be on there. From hearing the song, I want to see that documentary. That ‘s one of the more fiery joints on there.”