Nas shares his thoughts on his status as hip hop veteran

[bigted]

Grammy-nominated rapper Nas recently talked about today's rap newcomers and shared how he views his status as a hip-hop veteran.

According to Nas, it is vital to keep in tact and maintain relationships with the rap newcomers.

"Where do I see myself, I'm waiting for the rap game to catch up," Nas said during a press conference. "Not to sound arrogant, that's just a generational thing. When the young guys come out, they hit me on the BlackBerry, real rap and it's love because they can tell I love them. And it's just like, we're speaking from different perspectives so that's why they appreciate the older stuff and kinda like it, or the guys that's older than them because they can see where their future might be. But meanwhile, they're reinventing the game from the early stage from a young stage." (Rap Radar)

Fellow rap veteran Ice Cube recently explained his issues with trying to help rappers on the come-up.

"I got burnt out," Cube wrote explaining why he stopped producing new emcees. "N*ggas couldn't take the baton and run wit it. I was sick of babysitting grown a** men and walking them through the industry...With that being said, I understand my last few blogs have been talked about in the streets and all over the internet. I want to make myself clear to all my fans who think I turned my back on the young rappers out here. No. I wish every young MC nothing but success, especially the ones from the New West. BUT, I have a major problem with any mothaf*cka from ANY COAST dissing the Old West...especially me. I'M SERVING YOU!" (Ice Cube's Blog)

West Coast emcee Xzibit, however, said it was key to help out younger generation emcees.

"I feel like if more of us held down more of our own, it would generate and circulate throughout the whole coast. We'd have a vibrate f***in' scene here," X said in an interview. "How did I get on? What happens if King Tee wouldn't have come through and been like 'Hey man, not only can you drink 40s, you can rap' (laughs). King Tee came through and gave me a shot, and Tha Alkaholiks a shot. It's gotta start somewhere. It gotta start somewhere. I think f***in' with these dudes, they gonna be representatives of where we at." (Baller Status)

Last year, rap mogul Jay-Z addressed the hip-hop age factor.

"I hear it all the time -- 'Yo, he should let the young guys, the new generation of guys come in,'" Jay explained in an interview. "But you don't become the front-runner in music because someone lets you. You have to claim your shoes...If you grow up listening to hip-hop, you love hip-hop and that's the end of it. But if you're a 30 year-old rapper still trying to make music like you're 15, then you're making it narrow. At my age, I can't relate to a 15 year-old. I deal with mature and relevant topics for my age group -- it has to all be based on true emotions. The more diversity and the more mature we make hip-hop, the bigger the net you cast." (Reuters)

[JumpinJack AJ]

I think it's all very silly that age is coming into play. I look at it this way. Either you are good or you're not (or in the middle). Most of these NEW guys who happen 2 be YOUNG guys are idiots. They making stupid music about stupid stuff and sound stupid doing it. I actually get disappointed when I see an established artist (much less a LEGEND) supporting an artist who has no talent and spits wack lyrics over trendy commercial, watered down beats. Find the talent ARTISTS who actually care and embrace them....don't just support any "flavor of the month" type artist who isn't going to have a career 3 years down the road.

[VIsqo]

This is like the theme of the rap world nowadays.. Support the new comers that aint good. People, theres a lot of talent out there! Saigon, Royce the 5'9, B.O.B., slaughterhouse guys, and the list just goes on, why dont this legends try to help this yougnsters rise?

[Turntable]

I'm all for supporting young cats, XZibit is right, I owever also do think Jay-Z is also right. There are a lot of new good mc's out there.. and there are a lot of old mc's that ended up delivering average records these days.. age aint nothing but a number.. you make a good record or you dont, thats it

[bigted]

Age shouldn't have nothing to do with it but the reality really is that a lot of these younger mcs are garbage and couldn't hold a mic compared the veterans who are keeping hip hop alive... Also the truth is all the real hip hop is under the radar, for instance Will's "Lost & Found" album was probably one of the last veteran hip hop albums to go gold and that's now over 5 years ago and Lupe Fiasco's one of the last young talented mcs to have airplay in recent years but there's a lot more good music out there within that time period it's just not popular, blame the record labels for promoting wack music over substance...

[Turntable]

I'd say blame the people for buying it