Distant Relatives – Nas and Damian Marley

Hitting store shelves Tuesday or the internet last Tuesday is the long anticipated collaboration between rapper Nas and reggae artist Damian Marley. These two have been talking and recording for the better part of two years leading up to this release so the bar was set very high for fans.

Nas has been quiet since his last album “Untitled” was released. It only containted one single for the radio and in the day and age of disposable music it was put to the side by the mainstream very quickly. Damian Marley broke into the mainstreasm with "Welcome To Jamrock" and has the family history to back him up whenever he releases music.

I didn’t have high hopes for this album for a number of reasons. The first was collaboration albums have never worked out really well (best of both worlds and the Firm come to mind). The second was my interest in Nas and his music has been eroding of lately. Once a rapper who was in constant rotation in my headphones, I find myself turning him out, maybe because of his message or maybe because Jay-Z left him for dead. Lastly, I have never been a huge reggae fan, so needless to say this album was really going to have to work to win me over.

So, how did this play out in the headphones? I was pleasantly surprised. The album is catered to Jr. Gong Marley. From the beats to the choruses to the choice of guest stars, the album definitely revolves around Marley and his talents. When listenining to the album I was always waiting for Nas’s 16 bars only to have them blend into the song. I found myself singing the choruses with Marley, but I can’t really repeat you one line of Nas that stood out and was characteristic of the Nasty Nas we used to know and fawn over.
The first single “As We Enter“ is starting to get airplay, but it isn’t a good representation of the rest of the album which is much less up-tempo and harsh. Other tracks that stood out to me during the first couple of listens were “Strong Will Continue”, “Tribal War” which features Canadian artist K’Naan (of waving flag fame) and “Count Your Blessings”.

This is better than some of the past collaborations that have hit the market, but I am not sure we should be holding our breath for Distant Relatives 2.

Distant Relatives gets 3 Mics out of 5.