By Odeisel
We don’t always give passage to our younger generation. We defend our era by stepping on the aspirations of the next and begrudgingly, if they begin to exert their dominance, we might give them a chest bump, but that’s where it stops. I remember a few years ago when Rakim pitched a bitch because Nas has a track on one of his albums called The Unauthorized Biography of Rakim. the track was nothing but homage for Nas’ forerunner in the history of the music, but Rakim didn’t take too kindly to having a song done about him without his permission and shit got awkward.
Time is cyclical and now we have another young lion in the game, J.Cole showing a ton of growth and maturity on his sophomore release with his track, Let Nas Down, where he cites the Nasty One as his inspiration and thought that his path to fame and his entry into Hip-Hop would have let Nas down. Well Nas handled the situation with far more grace than Rakim did and just dropped a neutron bomb with Made Nas Proud. Aging like fine wine, Nas gets it in and lets the young boy know that it’s all love and that he has to find his own way.
A lyrical tip of the cap that continues Nas’ sublime representation of his era while avoiding shitting on his descendants. Life is good. The remix is better. Made Nas Proud. Thank us later.
