Nas 'Street's Disciple' album

Fans of Nas will get their first taste of the hip-hop legend's groundbreaking new magnum opus, Street's Disciple, when Ill Will/Sony Urban Music/Columbia Records drops "Bridging The Gap," the new Nas single, on Tuesday, November 2.

Nas' first national TV performance of "Bridging the Gap" can be seen on VH-1's Hip Hop Honors special airing on October 12 @ 9pm ET/PT. In addition, "Bridging The Gap" impacts radio and video channels the week of October 18.

The double-disk Street's Disciple, Nas' seventh full-length testament, hits stores on Tuesday, November 30.

"Bridging The Gap" is, according to Nas, "the whole transition of music from African to blues to rock and roll to hip-hop, gospel and everything."

While the song tracks the evolution of black music from its African roots to New Orleans jazz to the gospel and blues singers of the Mississippi Delta to the electric blues of Chicago to Chuck Berry to Motown to the graffiti-scrawled streets of Queens, "Bridging The Gap" spans familial generations as well, with Nas sharing and trading musical sentiments and statements of empowerment with his own father, the legendary avant-garde jazz trumpeter Olu Dara.

Dara, who was born in Mississippi in 1941, moved to New York in 1963 and developed a formidable reputation on the city's avant-garde jazz scene for his unprecedented incorporation of country-blues roots and African-American folk traditions into his mind-blowing free jazz work. Dara first collaborated with Nas in 1994, playing trumpet on the classic track, "Life's A Bitch," from his son's debut album Illmatic.

"Bridging The Gap" opens with Dara offering an autobiographical rhyme (with musical and lyrical hooks referencing the archetypal Bo Diddley/Muddy Waters "I'm A Man"/"Mannish Boy" riff): "You see I come from Mississippi/I was young and running wild/Ended up in New York City/Where I had my first child/I named the boy Nasir/All the boys call him Nas/I told him as a youngster/He'll be the greatest man alive"--before name-checking black greats ranging from Miles (Davis) and Dizzy (Gillespie) to Howling Wolf to Prince. "Bridging The Gap" is the jubilant sound of Nas and Olu Dara joining their musical heirs on a cultural path leading back in time and forward into the future.
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Since the 1994 release of Illmatic, the blueprint album that laid the foundation for East Coast hip-hop in the 90s and beyond while establishing Nas as one of hip-hop's most electrifying and influential urban street poets, Nas has proven himself to be one of hip-hop's most potent, durable, and abiding forces with a string of RIAA gold and platinum successes: Illmatic (1994: gold, platinum); It Was Written (1996: gold, 2x platinum); "Sweet Dreams" (1997: gold); I Am... (1999: gold, 2x platinum); Nastradamus (1999: gold, platinum); Stillmatic (2002: gold, platinum); God's Son (2003: gold, platinum).

Biography
In 2002 Nas reflected, "I make money from what I do, and it's God's gift. I didn't get in the business just to make a million or two billion overnight. There's nothing wrong with that, but I don't care. I just love the music and enjoying my life at the same time. I love rap more than being a star in rap."

Since his landmark solo debut, 1994's Illmatic (recently reissued in a commemorative 10th anniversary 2 CD set), Nas has been a star, yet, more importantly, he's been a lyrical standard-setter and visionary. For over 10 years, Nas has steadfastly elevated his game, broadened his perspective and refused to allow success to mute his revolutionary message of faith, the streets, family, retribution, intelligence and rap's ultimate power.

Now two years after the seminal God's Son, which Time magazine declared was "the best hip-hop album of the year," the Source gave "4 mics," and Vibe blessed with "four stars," Nas is back with an album that testifies once again to his singular impact, importance and growth. That album, the double CD Street's Disciple, is unflinching, potent, passionate, playful, reflective, loving, vengeful, seething, searing, spiritual and, fundamentally, proof of the sound, fury and purposefullness that rap music, and Nas, is capable of.

Helping Nas bring his vision to fruition are producers such as LES, Salaam Remi (who helmed the explosive single "Thief's Theme") and Nas. Also adding his creative spirit is Nas's father, the acclaimed jazz/blues artist Olu Dara (who also appeared on God's Son) Along with "Thief's Theme," which finds Nas imparting wisdom on top of 60's rock staple "In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida," standout cuts include the pulsating "Know My Style," which is already a mix tape favorite.

Nas knows about hard-hitting street savvy anthems. This lyrical maestro has been responsible for singles (i.e. "The World Is Yours," "One Mic," "Ether" and "Made You Look") that have served as definitive hip-hop moments, instantly making their mark on radio, in the clubs and among the fans who have looked to Nas to continuously push rap music to new heights.

Born Nasir Jones, the son of Dara and the late Ann Jones, Nas came of age in the Queensbridge Houses, home to a litany of luminaries including Marley Marl and the Juice Crew. With beats and verbiage built virtually into QB's concrete walls, Nas had already soaked up sonic and syllabic influences by the time he was old enough to put pen to paper. It was only a matter of time before he made his own attempts to move the crowd.

While still in his teens, Nas began crafting rhymes that blended his finely tuned sense of literacy and rhetoric with glamorized thug theatrics reflecting the harsh realities of his environment. That combination of poetics and danger exploded in 1991 when Nas was invited by Main Source to drop a verse on "Live At the Barbeque." Nas's contribution earned respect in the East Coast rap scene and soon after, 3rd Bass' MC Serch approached Nas to contribute a track to the "Zebrahead" soundtrack. Nas delivered "Halftime," and it made such an impact that Serch made it the soundtrack's lead off single.

The industry started paying attention to what the underground already knew and Nas was quickly signed to Columbia Records. Numerous New York based producers clamored to work with him and eventually Pete Rock, Large Professor, Q-Tip, and DJ Premier entered the studio with Nas to create Illmatic. If the pre-album hype had been deafening, the post-album reaction was even more intense: in some quarters, Nas was anointed rap's savior. Cuts such as "N.Y. State of Mind" and "It Ain't Hard to Tell" provided a gritty yet thoughtful soundtrack to life on NY's mean streets and Illmatic became an instant classic.

Nas followed up that success with It Was Written (1996), containing the smashes "Street Dreams" and "If I Ruled the World (Imagine That)." The videos for the songs became MTV staples and afforded Nas crossover success and street cred. During this juncture in his career, Nas lead the short-lived super group, The Firm, comprised of fellow New Yorkers Foxy Brown, AZ and Nature. In 1999, Nas hit a highpoint with the one-two punch of I Am and Nastradamus, both of which topped the charts and further broadened his appeal. In addition, he made his acting debut in the Hype Williams-directed "Belly." In 2000, Nas kept true to his artistic ambitions by assembling a cadre of his fellow Queensbridge rappers for the certified gold, debut release on Ill Will Records, QB Finest, yet kept a low profile as a solo performer.

That radically shifted in 2001 as Nas entered into an intensive phase of an already potent career. Publicly called out by Jay-Z, his long time rival and fellow contender for the King of New York Hip-Hop crown, on "Takeover," Nas fired back via mixtapes, the radio and most notably with the bruising "Ether." The song, which was the unofficial first single off Stillmatic, galvanized not only Nas but also the world of hip-hop. The mano y mano between the two platinum powerhouses became the talk of the streets and the industry as the airwaves in NYC were filled with the escalating hip-hop "he said/he said." During those charged months, Nas offered he was "at war" and as a soldier, shot with deadly aim, dropping not only "Ether," but the aggressive "Got Ur Self A…" (set to "The Sopranos" opening theme) as well as the moving "One Mic," the emotional video which earned a 2002 MTV Video Award nomination for Video Of The Year.

Like the album it referenced, Stillmatic marked Nas's commitment to taut, tough and thought-provoking hip-hop and garnered high praise and platinum plus sales. Stillmatic was widely viewed as not only a personal triumph but also a return to form, a sentiment magnified by 2002's Lost Tapes, which brings together all of Nas' unreleased underground gems and garnered critical acclaim --, and God's Son.

Kicking off with the crackling park jam "Made You Look," God's Son proved to be more than just the follow-up to Stillmatic. Deeply delving into his heart and soul with tracks that spoke to turmoil and loss as well as overcoming adversity, God's Son was "really personal" and painted a portrait of a young man struggling with his demons, yet open to the possibility of angels. As he said at the time of God's Son release, "My goals are to live welland be at peace until I leave this raggedy mutha****. This is a beautiful-ass world…if you can deal with all the bull****, it's a beautiful world."

Older. Wiser. More focused. More at peace. More fired up. Waging war. Making love. If Nas has symbolized anything throughout his soul-stirring run, it's been people's contradictory nature and the poetry that can arise from it. On the much-anticipated Street's Disciple, Nas rises to the challenge not only as an artist but also as a man.

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Nas - Street's Disciple