Day 38, Nas and Damian Marley - Distant Relatives

Stars: 2.75
Song: “As We Enter” and “Dispear”
Show: 5$

Collaborations have some intrinsic pitfalls and Nas and Damian sometimes lose their footing near the edge. Most songs work. A few do not. And even fewer are really good. Although the collaboration idea is intriguing, and I’m sure it helped with album sales, it comes off as a clash of the titans.

You notice this most in the production. Although Damian and Stephen Marley produced the whole thing, it seems like there is an obvious divide between hip-hop and rock-raggae. For one, there is a lot of live instrumentation, such as distorted guitars reverberating out into epic battle songs, nylon string acoustic ditties, tribal chanting, etc. which is not the sort of style Nas typically vibes with. Naturally, Nas kills the tracks rooted in straight up, sample-heavy hip-hop such as “Patience,” and is awkward when featured on Damian’s positive, “push on through,” cheese-ball, inspirational tunes such as “In His Own Words.” Nas’s style is in your face, and although he is a rapper with insight and wisdom, he’s not afraid to drop flows about drugs and violence. So when you have Damien singing la-di-da lyrics like “Only the strong will continue, do you have it in you?” or “I got love and endurance, I got new health insurance, so I count my blessings,” and you put it up against Nasty Nas, there is a bit of a collision.

But there a few songs that really triumph. The first track “As We Enter” rips. It’s a little misleading because it’s the only one where these two distant relatives cut out all the bull and just flow. Throughout the rest of the album, Damian takes a verse, rhymes one simple melodic line over and over, then the hook, then Nas takes a verse. Here, they throw the mic back and forth in a beautifully musical way. Nas will get cooking, and then mid sentence cut out and for a shot of Damian’s funky reggae. And they’ll flip it every other line or couple of words. It’s wicked fluid, fast, and catchy. Sadly, though, this is the only track of it’s kind.

“Dispear” is the best example of the album achieving what it set out to do. It incorporates Nas’s intense rhyme style and Damian’s spiritual reggae into a worldly discussion of poverty and war in a manor that does not come off trite—which a lot of the album does. A lot of the tracks like “Tribes at War” and “Aftrica Must Wake Up” chase this dragon, but they didn’t sharpen their swords enough to take it down.