This is really the week of unreleased leaks. For any casual Nas fans (do those exist?), a recently posted stream of pre-Illmatic  material will provide you with eleven high quality early demos. A majority of the tracks previously were collected on Nasty Nas (The Original 1991 Demo Tape) There are songs produced by homie Large Professor and appearances by hip hop heavyweights Biz Markie and Kool G. Rap. While his first LP is considered one of the finest debuts in rap, it’s still illuminating to hear him pumping out gems at an even younger age.   Check out the tracklist and album stream below.

Pre- Illmatic Demo Tracklist

1. Understanding 0:00
Featuring AZ & Biz Markie
2. Life Is Like A Dice Game 3:12
3. Just Another Day In The Projects 5:51
4. Déjà Vu 9:04
Produced by Chris Winston
5. Back To The Grill 12:51
Featuring MC Serch feat. Chubb Rock & Red Hot Lover Tone
Produced by T-Ray
6. Everything Is Real 17:53
Featuring Shapelle
7. I’m A Villain 20:09
Produced by Large Professor
8. Number One With A Bullet 24:31
Featuring Kool G. Rap & Whiteboy
9. Nas Will Prevail (It Ain’t Hard To Tell Original) 28:47
Produced by Large Professor
10. On The Real (Original) 33:45
Featuring Akinyele, Screwball, & Cormega
11. Live At The BBQ 37:13
Featuring Fatal & Akinyele

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Providing listeners with a new platform to get their fill of all things beef, behind-the-scenes and other types of hip-hop head gossip, Complex TV has taken the popular  Combat Jack Show and turned it into a video series for their channel, and The Roots/Okayplayer’s own Black Thought performed guest duties for the debut episode.

To cut to the chase, the generally mild-mannered (but beastly on the mic) frontman of The Legendary spoke to Combat Jack and his co-hosts about that one time he and Nas almost went to blows over a comment, but decided to handle it like adults instead:

Nas got in some interview and he made a comment about how wack it was for us to do the movie, Bamboozled, with Spike Lee, and how you gon’ call yourself The Roots and Black Thought and you’re portraying a group called The Alabama Porch Monkeys?

I hadn’t really interacted with him at all up until that point. And then there was a show one night with Talib Kweli, and I think Kweli invited Nas and he invited me, and we were all there in the building together. I had a chance to meet Nas, and he explained to me that it wasn’t coming from a personal place, and he basically apologized.

I was ready for whatever. Yeah, I was gonna take Nas that night. When I heard he was gonna be there, I was like, “Should I just slap the shit outta Nas?”… But before any of that, he defused it, on some real, bigger man shit.

What Thought neglects to mention here was Nas’ own motivation for the comment, well-remembered by some of us in-house here at Okayplayer–apparently Nasir caught feelings when The Roots not only backed Jay-Z on his Unplugged special during the time when there was still a lot of ether–literally–between Nas and Jay but even played a medley of Nas beats including “Oochie Wallie” and “NY State Of Mind” underneath a segment of Hov’s performance dissing Nas, the kind of musical jokes only a band like The Roots can pull off. Their role in Bamboozled was apparently his first opportunity to slap back at the crew and the rest is history–just a little ‘behind the scenes’ information on the beef from the proud vegetarians here at OKP.

Although we’re sure a lyrical feud between Nas and Thought would have resulted in some of the best battle verses the game has ever seen/heard, we’re glad the two were able to settle things as a matter of differing opinions like grown-ass men. The brief interview also finds Tariq talking about his first impressions of a young ?uestlove, and the experiences of losing his parents to gun violence as a young man in Philly. Watch the full interview below and stay tuned for more episodes of The Combat Jack show on CTV.

shouts to CTV

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Over the weekend in Indio, California, lucky Coachella partyers got the treat of a lifetime as nasty Nas surprised the guests of a DETAILS magazine party. Backed by a DJ, he took it back to “It Ain’t Hard To Tell.” The inspired performance is a preview of his festival appearances this summer, which include Bonnaroo and Governor’s Ball. Peep the video below.

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The American branch of the Amy Winehouse Foundation held a gala and Inspiration Awards ceremony in New York City this past weekend honoring Winehouse collaborators Nas and Tony Bennett amongst others. The foundation focuses on steering young musicians away from substance abuse and promotes music education. The singer’s parents Mitch and Janis Winehouse spoke of their daughter as a champion of these causes well before her untimely death in 2011. A $25,000 grant from the foundation has sponsored the Teen Jazz Program at the Brooklyn Conservatory of Music. Monies raised during a silent auction at the gala will go toward continuing to fund the program as well as others, including the New Orleans Jazz Orchestra. Performances from Tony Bennett and Jennifer Hudson highlighted the evening. Harry Belafonte appeared to present Bennett with his award. Foundation honorees included Bennett, Nas, Moe Kane and Salaam Remi – early Winehouse collaborator and primary producer for most of her first two albums.

Spotted at RS.

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The Bonnaroo Music & Arts Festival returns for 2013 with another awesome list of acts. The festivities are set to jump off from their 700 acre launchpad in Manchester, Tennessee on June 13th. Nas, R. Kelly, Wu-Tang Clan, A$AP Rocky and Kendrick Lamar top the list of headliners and other acts of special Okayplayer interest include Earl Sweatshirt, Action Bronson, Lee Fields & The Expressions, Amadou & Mariam and araabMUZIK–not to mention the soul superjam anchored by Zigaboo Modaliste and the Preservation Hall Jazz Band. The bill is full of big names (scroll down for the poster art with full line-up) that will undoubtedly make for four days of packed performances and major partying at the multi-stage event. In other festival news, the UK’s Wireless Festival rocks from July 12th to the 13th with Justin Timberlake and Jay-Z headlining that Friday and Saturday, respectively. Back on this side of the pond the Firefly Music Festival in Dover, Delaware will feature performances from Kendrick Lamar and the almighty Public Enemy between June 21st and 23rd. Mark your calendars!

Tickets for Bonnaroo will be available in the coming days via the festival’s official website.

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Foo Fighters frontman Dave Grohl just released a documentary, Sound City about the legendary Los Angeles recording studio of the same name. The studio saw the likes of Neil Young, Tom Petty, and Paul McCartney, among others, before closing in 2011. For the film, he gathered together a variety of artists who had recorded at the iconic studio to perform their hits as well as collaborate on new music. Grohl is on a promotional run, performing length concerts around the world with a super-group called the Sound City Players. They appeared on the Late Show with David Letterman last night to perform a new song entitled “You Can’t Fix This.” The band featured Fleetwood Mac’s Stevie Nicks and Alain Johannes as well as the Foo fighters (see the ensemble rock out below). In other Dave Grohl news, he guest-hosted Chelsea Lately last week and interviewed Nas. The two spoke about the Grammys and the fact that nasty Nas has been nominated for 18 awards and has yet to win any. They also touch on hip-hop’s lack of representation at the award show. Be sure to peep our Grammys round-up and watch the Nas interview below.

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The official line-up for the 2013 Governer’s Ball on Randall’s Island, New York  has been announced with Kanye West, Nas, and Kendrick Lamar leading the hip-hop pack. Other headliners include Kings of Leon, Feist, The xx, Miss Erykah Badu, Miguel, Gary Clark, Jr. and Azealia Banks along with a slew of others. We’re pretty impressed with the diversity of selection, and with one major act still TBA the festival is looking like a dope three-day event for music heads of all tastes. Not to be outshined by the musical draws, the NYC food truck line-up promises to keep festival-goers nourished at a much more delicious rate than most events of this caliber, which for some of you might be reason enough to cop tickets on its own. The folks behind the scenes released a video announcing the full line-up with NYC resident hooligans Jonathan Solis and The Fat Jew you can watch below. For more information including full line-up, vendor listings, and ticket options, head over to the official festival site.

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Nas the original King of Queens (and now CNN’s favorite lyricist of all time) Nas recently sat down with acclaimed music journalist Anthony DeCurtis for an in-depth interview at the 92Y Cultural Institution and Community Center. The two chop it up about everything, from his musical process to his family, his childhood to his current profession and much more. Take the time to watch through the entire hour and fifteen minute video to truly understand what really goes on inside the mind of Nasty Nas.

God’s son also rolls through for a special edition of Hot 97′s Angie Martinez show celebrating Angie’s birthday. The back and forth consists of Nas’ thoughts on the New Years Eve Radio City performance, his 18 (!) Grammy nominations, and his plans for future music. The talk continues with words on CNN naming him the greatest lyricist (see the link above), his relationship with his ex-wife Kelis, and his daughter being in college. Check out both interviews below and get a better picture of who Nas really is and what it is he really does.

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Now that we’ve closed the book on 2012, we can speak with (a little) more perspective on what it all meant–musically at least. In the world of music as in real life, 2012 was in some ways not as earth-shattering as its predecessor. Yet it was a year in which earth-shattering potential was realized. Specifically the rookies of the millenium–Frank Ocean, Kendrick Lamar, Miguel, Gary Clark Jr., A$AP Rocky and The Weeknd, to name a few–all delivered complete, mature albums which equaled or outshone the flares sent up by their 2011 mixtape jams and one-offs. Bobby Womack and D’Angelo came out of retirement while Cody ChesnuTT came back out of nowhere. NaS decisively broke the curse of Illmatic‘s blessings after almost a decade and Kanye West made his mostly-theoretical label imprint into a road-ready vehicle for music that was actually good (meaning G.O.O.D., not BAD 25). Alla which is to say that while 2011 may have entered the names of more new artists into the roll-call of musical greatness, 2012 almost certainly added more jams to the canon of classic jams. And this list here is where we separate the peaks from the obsoletes–otherwise known as Okayplayer’s Top 12 Songs of 2012.

The post Year’s Best: Okayplayer’s Top 12 Songs Of 2012 appeared first on Okayplayer.

It’s the most wonderful time of the year–time to drink spiked eggnog, reconnect with friends and argue about the best albums of 2012. So start mixing up your favorite recipe for coquito, pull up a comfy chair (and comfy headphones) and let the argument begin. Don’t get too faded, though, or let the “discussion” drag out too long. You’ll undoubtedly want to raid this list for gift ideas and at the time of writing you only have 11 days 5 hours 44 minutes and 36 seconds left on the Christmas clock. And even less on the Doomsday clock. So let the countdown begin! (Actually, it’s not a countdown. What follows are the 12 albums we cared about most in 2012, in no particular order).

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