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Bringing ‘Distant Relatives’ together
Loading ...The culture and music of reggae and hip-hop have much in common — weed, sure, but also roots: the similarities between the genres and their shared connection to Africa are explored by hip-hop icon Nas and Jamaican reggae star Damian “Jr. Gong” Marley on the forthcoming album “Distant Relatives.” And in case a history lesson on the music of the African diaspora can’t be fully absorbed when it’s blaring out of a car stereo, “Distant Relatives” is also the subject of a documentary and a discussion panel, which take place Saturday at the National Geographic Society, on the connection between hip-hop and reggae.
“Sixty minutes of audio is not enough to express everything we want to express,” Marley says. Nas gives another reason for doing the documentary and the discussion: “A lot of people won’t understand why the hell Nas is doing an album with Damian Marley, or why the hell Damian Marley is doing an album with Nas, so they’ll get to look at us, hear us explain it,” he says.
After the legendary rapper and the renowned reggae artist (the son of reggae great Bob Marley) collaborated on “Road to Zion,” a track on Marley’s 2005 Grammy-winning album ” Welcome to Jamrock,” they decided to team up on an EP, which grew into an album. Marley, who produces all but one of the tracks on the new album, worked with the sounds of sub-Saharan Africa — the music draws influence from everything from soukous to Afrobeat. From there, the album’s larger focus emerged.
Read more at Washingtonpost.com
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