Schu-Review : Nas and Damian Marley – Distant Relatives

Entertainment, music


I was talking to a friend about the existence of this album and the first thing he said was ‘I’ve always wanted to like Damian Marley but he’s not hard enough for me.’ which I thought was strange because I’ve always wanted to like Nas but I thought he wasn’t ‘Musical’ enough. I like his lyrics, but sometimes his beats are kind of basic and his choruses are lacking. But he’s from the streets, YO. So this is the album for both of us.

It starts out with a bang. ‘As we enter’ is the classic hip-hop “who we are” song, with an interesting beat and lyrics. Lots of back and forth between the two. Marley really ups his lyric game on this track. Starts the album with a bang, really gets you going. I love this song.

[Damian Marley]
Masuri Sana
Switch up the language and move to Ghana

[Nas]
Salute and honor, real revolution rhymers

[Damian Marley]
Rhythm piranhas

[Nas]
Like true Obamas, unfold the drama

It’s not necessarily a bad thing, but this is my favorite song on the album. The album as a whole follows a track where it starts out loud and fast and then each song gets more mellow. There are a few really good songs ‘Strong Will Continue’ , ‘Land of Promise’ , and ‘Friends’. But with the statement it makes when it first starts I wish that it could have maintained that energy level through the whole thing. But I guess that is the melding of these two styles. It’s still a great album, put it on and chill out for 45 minutes.

4 out of 5 Schus