(AllHipHop News) Nas has built a nice relationship with Harvard University.
The rap icon helped establish the prestigious institution’s Nasir Jones Hip Hop Fellowship, and he was awarded the W.E.B Dubois Medal from Harvard’s Hutchins Center for African & African American Research.
Recently, Nas sat down with Harvard poetry professor Elisa New to discuss his classic Illmatic record “It Ain’t Hard To Tell.”
Nas took the time to break down a few lines from one of his breakout singles for the Poetry in America YouTube channel.
The conversation goes to show the truly poetic nature of the Queens emcee’s lyrics and Hip Hop music in general.
“Before there was rap music, there was this different way of using the English language,” said Nas. “There’s certain neighborhoods that spin the words around a lot different than others.”
He added, “I talk from that point of view – that language around my neighborhood that everybody uses. I don’t even recognize an outside world, especially back then.”