Nas & Damian Marley- “DISTANT RELATIVES”
Posted By: localeye | July 12, 2010 | 2 comments
It’s summer time, and with the summer weather comes a great reason to listen to a little reggae. I would think that when most people think of reggae, they think of the one and only Robert Nesta Marley. It only makes sense. His music is timeless. The lineage the man has left is amazing, and it shows with music being produced from Ziggy, Julian, Stephen, Ky-Mani and Damian.
I am a fan of Damian Marley. “Welcome to Jamrock” is one of my favorite reggae albums, up there with his Dad’s “Catch A Fire” and “Natty Dread” albums. Even his brother, Stephen’s “Mind Control” is high on my list of favorite reggae albums. Damian decided to extend the family and introduce Nas into the Marley’s with “Distant Relatives”… I wish he didn’t. I’m not the biggest hip hop / rap fan. I do like my EPMD discography and Black Sheep videos on You Tube, but only a few artists nowadays really do anything for me. Nas, unfortunately, isn’t one of them.
There are some really solid songs on this album. The opener, “As We Enter” is a perfect way to begin the album. It reminds me of how “Welcome to Jamrock” starts- BANG! GO! Nas doesn’t bother me much in this song probably because it’s a great song and he works well with it. The second song, “Tribal War” adds a lot depth to the production and also features K’Naan. If you don’t have K’Naan’s “Troubadour” album, go get it. This guy has a unique voice and a way with words; two things that a man in the genre should have.
The cool thing about this album is that it changes tempos. A lot. Fast paced, up beat songs like “Dispear” and “Nah Mean” to smooth and soothing songs like “Friends” and “Patience” (which, by the way, has this eerie chorus sung by a child’s toy??? Its weird, but it works.)
The disappointing song on the album is “In His Own Words”, performed with his brother, Stephen. I really thought this song would kick…. Ehhh. I really wanted it to kick. It’s so forgetful, I almost forgot to even write about it. There are a couple of songs that would fit more on a Ziggy album, “Count Your Blessings” and “Africa Must Wake Up”- upbeat and positive with children and lollipops. Blah. Sorry, Ziggy.
I really wish this was just a Damian Marley album and Nas was on just one song. You know, that song that doesn’t make the album. I’m at the point where I can just zone his parts out while listening. Putting that aside, this is another solid effort from DM. He definitely takes a more hip hop approach to his albums, obviously, but he has great style and writes catchy, interesting, head bobbing reggae.
RATING: 3.5/5
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cna training July 18, 2010 at 7:41 pm
Terrific work! This is the type of information that should be shared around the web. Shame on the search engines for not positioning this post higher!
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