Nas Reveals Secret To Beat Selection

[bigted]

http://www.sohh.com/2010/05/nas_reveals_secret_to_beat_selection_i_h.html
Grammy-nominated rapper Nas has revealed how he selects beats and why some collaborations and tracks get scraped due to time restraints.

According to Nas, his process begins by considering all the producers he would like to link with.

"Well I have a wish list sometimes or I have a dream list of who I would love to work with and wish they would want to get in the studio and do records or whatever," Nas said in an interview. "Then I have my own ideas of being a producer. And what happens is a lot of time goes by with me being indecisive so it winds up with me kind of like doing what I have to do really fast because I played around for so long. Then, the deadlines come. But, you never know who has it, everyone's got a lot of talent. You have Little Brother, you have Drumma Boy. There's a lot of dudes I like right now. You have DJ Toomp." (BET)
Last month, Nas talked about being a hip-hop veteran and watching 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)
Nas is currently putting together his new Damian Marley collaboration album, Distant Relatives.

"Reggae and hip-hop are cousins,'' he said in an interview. "Go back before the '90s and think about the music that was playing on the ghetto blasters and you'll hear it...The whole world is like family, split up all over the place. It's overdue, and I want to help build whatever we can [in Africa]. I've worked with a lot of reggae artists, like Sizzla and Supercat, but not until [2005's] Jamrock did I get a chance to work with Damian. I love his music and I'm a big fan of Bob Marley and the whole family. We haven't worked out any tour dates yet. But I'm sure Damian and I will do something soon." (Miami Herald)
Marley recently shared his reaction to Lil Wayne's contribution as a guest feature on the album.

"It's funny, because the track is called 'My Generation,'" Damian explained in an interview. "It's definitely geared towards that. Wayne really showed a lot of respect in his verse, in the way that he handled it. He handled it exactly would've really loved him to. I don't have any criticism at all about what he did. I think it's a great and blessed track. That's all I can really say about that." (Hip Hop DX)

Edited May 4, 2010 by bigted

[Da Brakes]

Not really much of a secret to beat selection here. He picks the producers he would like to work with........he gets some ideas...........doesn't do anything with them for a long time...........then has to rush things because he was indecisive!!

I must be missing something here!

[VIsqo]

Lol, maybe you are lol

[JumpinJack AJ]

Brakes, u certainly aren't missing anything. That sounds about right 2 me.

[bigted]

As great of a mc I think Nas is in all respects he's not the greatest beat selector, btw that verse that Lil' Wayne rapped on "My Generation" was much better than I expected

Edited May 4, 2010 by bigted

[DevilsJim89]

Not really much of a secret to beat selection here. He picks the producers he would like to work with........he gets some ideas...........doesn't do anything with them for a long time...........then has to rush things because he was indecisive!! I must be missing something here!

LOL...my thoughts exactly when I read this, sohh makes it seem like its such a sophisticated process, of course it starts with ideas and producers who you want to work with...lol

Ted - I FULLY agree with you...Nas used to be able to pick dope beats and work with real good people but I didnt like his last album..the only track I liked was "Hero" - Polow Da Don gave him a KILLER beat which I thought the entire album would have a similar sound but the production was very tiring and boring.

Edited May 4, 2010 by DevilsJim89

[JumpinJack AJ]

I like Nas...there are times in his career when I liked him a lot less. But over all I like him. He's rapped over some classic beats and he's rapped over some less-than-stellar beats. I have a handful of his albums and I follow him a little bit but not consistently very closely. That being said, I've always seen him as a good emcee and nothing more. A bigger fan can answer this, but is he more than a good emcee? To me, he's never seemed as the wisest business man. He seems like the kind of artist who should partner with other people at times to make sure he's making the right choices.

[bigted]

Yeah Nas isn't really the greatest business man either, he wanted to establish his own label over recent years but it never really mounted much to anything, and he said quite a bit of times that he was working on his own scripts for films, he was working on novels, none of that mounted to anything either other than talk, he's really just an emcee, if he made bigger moves he could be on a higher mainstream level at this point... To think of it really that's sorta a problem with a lot of the true emcees of why they struggle and why a lot of the sucka mcs like 50 Cent, Lil' Wayne, and Diddy have had more success 'cause even though they can't rap that well they're good buisinessmen, the best talent ain't getting rewarded as much as they should be... Really I think Nas' last classic album is "God's Son", his other albums since then have been hurting a lil' 'cause he hasn't chosen the right selection of production at times, unreleased mixtape songs that he's done in recent time has better material, now "The N***r Tape" is classic material to me....

Edited May 4, 2010 by bigted