Distant Relatives

Product Description International Hip Hop superstar Nas and Grammy-winning artist Damian "Jr. Gong" Marley join creative forces to release this highly anticipated and exciting 2010 collaboration. This is an album created by the two serious artists to explore and celebrate the correlations and deep-rooted connections between reggae and Hip Hop, tracing both sounds back to the African motherland that is both the cradle of humanity and the wellspring of mankind's music. The project features the signature instrumentation and musicianship of Marley with the hard-hitting beats and lyrics of Nas. Distant Relatives traces the direct line from Dancehall Reggae's breakthrough moment 40 years ago to the rise of Hip Hop several years later. About the Artist What we're about to do right now is go back. Back to a time when rap's greatest hits were created in basement soundrooms, not corporate boardrooms. When dancehall and hip-hop music was all about moving the crowd not "moving units." Before Damian "Jr. Gong" Marley and Nasty Nasir Jones first began treading the long and winding "Road to Zion." The artists' first collaboration went so well that they decided to do a full album together, and that album is Distant Relatives. Unlike all previous collaborations between Jamaican and American artists, Distant Relatives is neither a remix nor a featured guest spot on a single track. The recording is a fully collaborative effort filling an entire album, opening new avenues of musical expression. Distant Relatives traces the direct line from dancehall reggae's breakthrough moment forty years ago to the rise of hip-hop several years later--from Run D.M.C. and Yellowman's groundbreaking collaboration "Roots Rap Reggae" through Supercat introducing Biggie Smalls to the world on the "Dolly My Baby" remix and Shabba Ranks and KRS-One joining forces on "The Jam." That line continues right up through Damian Marley and Nas' double-Grammy-winning "Road To Zion." Distant Relatives is an album created by two serious artists to explore and celebrate the correlations and deep-rooted connections between reggae and hip-hop, tracing both sounds back to the African motherland that is both the cradle of humanity and the wellspring of mankind's music. And who better to fulfill this mission? The youngest son of the legendary Bob Marley, Damian "Jr. Gong" Marley garnered his own place in musi