Originally planned as a mixtape, later evolved to a full compilaton album “The Re-Up” will feature collaborations with Ca$his, Snoop Dogg, Mobb Deep, 50 Cent, Lloyd Banks, Nas, Obie Trice, Bobby Creekwater, D-12, Stat Quo & Akon.

New song produced by Will.I.Am, that will be featured on Nas’ upcoming Def Jam release “Hip Hop Is Dead…The N”.

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New remix featuring Labba, M.O.P, Papoose & of course Nas. This is one of the many remixes including West, Dirty South, Midwest & now the New York edition by Busta Rhymes.

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Friday evening, we went to hear a grip of New Nas Music. When you hear that Nas is working with Storch, Dre, Kanye, and Just on his first Def Jam album, you gotta wonder what direction he’s trying to go in. Turns out he left the pop smashes for the candy rappers, celebrities and pop stars, copped up some dirty pretty things, and dug in deep in the booth. From what we heard, this record has Nas at his best - thoughtful, vulnerable, sad, angry, militant, intellectual, and struggling to do right by himself, his principles, his craft. We know that sounds a little heavy-handed, but shit - we’re used to having listening sessions tell us everything we need to know about an album, but this once-through listen only allowed us to scratch the surface of Hip-Hop Is Dead… The N. We’re not the ones to make proclamations like “hip-hop is dead,” but recently we have been thinking that the hip-hop LP might be dead. But when it’s done, this is gonna be an album you can play all the way through. Read the track-by-track after the jump.

1. (We didn’t get the name of this track) produced by Salaam Remi
Over SR’s huge, mega, “We Will Rock You”-sized drums and stadium anthem strings, Nas lists everyone who he’s not psyched on, and it’s not pretty. Nas would like to send a big “Fuck You” to the following people, in no particular order: niggas, bitches, snitches, niggas, crackas, judges, losers, cowards, etc.

2. “QB True G” featuring the Game, produced by Dr Dre
This is the first really dope example of the maybe crazy but definitely awesome approach Nas seems to have taken on the beats for this record. He called most of the biggest names in the biz, then had Def Jam right them really big checks for their “album cut” tracks. This is definitely not “In The Club” (thankfully), but we’ll be damned if it doesn’t knock. Nas calls himself, “The one kid that coulda been Aftermath that got away.” We can think of a few others, but that’s prolly nitpicking. Game waxes nostalgic about being in the record store in 1995, looking at the shelves, trying to choose between Illmatic on the right and The Chronic on the left. We couldn’t wait to hear the answer to the million dollar question, but as it turns out, Young Game stole both records.

3. ????????????
We can’t tell you about this record.

4. “Carry On Tradition” produced by Scott Storch
Over a really pretty Scott Storch beat, Nas raps “Hip-hop been dead and it’s our fault.” Nas proceeds to break down how hip-hop has done everything in its power to commit suicide, maybe accidentally, maybe not. It’s basically a cautionary tale for youngblood rappers. Some other lyrical samples: “Jewish stay together, friends in high places/ We on some low level shit,” “Had your man shoot you like in that Soprano’s episode,” “We used to be a ghetto secret/ Can’t decide if I want that or if I want the whole world to peep it.”

5. “Play On Player” featuring Snoop, produced by Scott Storch
This song is definitely some pimp shit, but Nas characteristically touches on everything from cunnilingus to conflict diamonds. The craziest thing about “Play On” though is that both MCs take like 32 bars or something? We had no idea Snoop could currently be fucked to write a 32 bar verse.

6. “Still Dreamin” featuring Kanye West, produced by Kanye West
Kanye sets the tone for another very pretty beat by saying, “As the sun sets/ And night falls/ And them hoes call….” We wonder if Kanye had that line on the beat before Nas got a hold of it, because it’s straight storytelling from there, and not really “A Night Out With Rappers and Hoes” storytelling either. Kanye has the first verse, Nas kicks a second verse about a dude trying to get money and a third verse that’s a cautionary tale about a chick who gets caught up in all kinds of raw shit, snorting, etc etc etc.

7. “Blunt Ashes” produced by Chris Webber.
Yes, that Chris Webber. In case you haven’t noticed, the mega-celebrity world is mad small, for better or for worse. The beat is cool though. Nas intros the song saying, “I wonder if Langston Hughes and Alex Haley got blazed before they told stories. But I’m gonna blaze before I tell this story….” Nas runs through crazy black (and white) history, not just dropping names, but also, as with the intro, looking back on old stories and framing them in a 2006 perspective, seemingly trying to figure out what it all has to do with him. Names checked: Sam Cooke, Bobby Womack, Marvin Gaye, Tammi Terrell, Diana Ross and Florence “Flo” Ballard, JFK, Lauren Bacall and Judy Campbell. He probably goes the deepest on Hattie McDaniel, who is the first black actress to win an Oscar (her winning performance was in Gone With The Wind). Nas notes that McDaniel “couldn’t go the the premiere of her own joint,” and adds, “I know they were strong back then.”

8. “White Man’s Paper (War)” featuring Damien Marley, produced by “some new African dude” (that’s all we were told)
“I get my news from that white man’s paper/ So I get my views from that white man’s paper…” Nas and Jr Gong have been down for years, and the craziness of this angry, blistering, bouncing record reflects that. They should start a group called Gods’ Sons.

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As for Nas, Premier produced an as-yet-untitled track for the rapper’s forthcoming album “Hip-Hop Is Dead…The N,” due Dec. 19 via Def Jam. The pair previously worked together on Nas’ 1994 debut “Illmatic” (Columbia).

“We did one song for the [new] album but we haven’t mixed it yet,” says Premier, who correctly predicted the disc would be pushed back from its original November release date. “I don’t know what the latest [date] is but I think he should wait ’til next year, personally, to really make a classic bomb. He can do it but I think he needs more time. Whatever he chooses, he’s got my support.”

In addition, Nas and Preemo hope to release their long-brewing collaborative set soon. “[Nas] told me he wants the next album to be the one that we finally do, just me and him, all the way through — just a Premier and Nas album,” says Premier. “We’ll see if that goes down.”

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Twelve years ago, you’d never catch Nas in the streets without a ton of reefer. Today, the King Poetic has turned over a new leaf, and no longer splits the leaves of his cigars. Perhaps it’s a new frame of mind for a 33-year-old rapper who went from snubbing Jesus to being the same age as the Christian messiah at his death. Perhaps this maturity has created a new perspective for the Queensbridge icon. With the forthcoming Hip-Hop is Dead Nas is candid about his mature views on the music that so many critics say he advanced a decade ago. But the question remains, if Hip-Hop is dead, can Nasir Jones – or anybody else for that matter, revive it? Just before the last rites, Nas arrives with one mic.

AllHipHop.com: If Hip-Hop is dead, who killed it?

Nas: Corporate America and DJs, radio programmers, video/TV programming, the rappers, us. We all just had a whole bunch of fun. We had too much fun. Because you got to live your life, know what I mean. And it’s a business. And business, it kills it, you know what I mean, business then kills it and s**t.

AllHipHop.com: Well you maybe out and Hip-Hop is dead, so you referring to a specific chapter or just a general, conclusive data?

Nas: I mean, it just came to me from people. I just heard people talking and I was just in the streets. So I would say the streets named the album.

AllHipHop.com: So you’re just saying the street does it, that doesn’t mean that you necessarily agree?

Nas: I totally agree. Yeah it’s just dead man. I’m free now.

AllHipHop.com: So you’re not making Hip-Hop anymore. What are you making if Hip-Hop –

Nas: I don’t know what it is - some s**t right. Crack music, whatever. It’s f**ked up.

AllHipHop.com: Well, I mean the reason you give, then you mentioned working with a different caliber of producers for this next album. Give us a little insight as to who we can expect to hear from the album…

Nas: Well, some people I’ve been working with, you know Salaam Remi, L.E.S., you know Dr. Dre, not as much but Dre. Premier, you know –

AllHipHop.com: What happened to the Premier/ Nas album?

Nas: Yeah, well that’s some s**t we want to do, you know. I think we really got to set aside some time to do it. You know, ‘cause when I’m ready to do it, I’m ready to do it at a certain kind of way and Premier got his way of doing it. We just got to really settle down because I want it to be an idea thing, like a concept from beginning to end, the theme you know.

AllHipHop.com: Okay, I see you. So I also heard that you have Will.I.Am…

Nas: Oh yeah Will.I.Am. I’ll definitely have.

AllHipHop.com: So you know that throws a lot of people left because there’s a lot of people in Hip-Hop and your fans kind of regard you as above ground, with underground sound, know what I mean?

Nas: Yeah, yeah.

AllHipHop.com: Do you even give a damn what people think?

Nas: Um –Yeah, well Will.I.Am is the truth. He’s the truth, man. That dude is… he’s advanced. He loves Hip-Hop so much, he could out break-dance anybody. He’s all the way involved. Don’t be surprised you catch him doing graffiti on subway somewhere. You know we don’t get a chance to see that because his group [Black Eyed Peas] is so large, you know. We don’t get to see who he really is.

AllHipHop.com: So what do you say to your fans who feel like you basically like sold yourself out in signing with Jay?

Nas: I signed with Def Jam. I didn’t sign with Jay. You know what I’m saying? Like, I’m not signing with Roc-A-Fella. I’m signing to myself, joint venture situation with Jones Experience [Nas’ new label]. And I’m actually still in with Sony. This album is a collective thing with some [people], but it was my idea to, or it was my thing to, you know help make the situation [work]. I had to go in there as a royalty act on Sony and deal with people knowing that [Sony] was a sinking ship for me, and it was my time to leave.

So you know there’s… you respect the Clive Davis’ and a lot of other Lyor Cohen’s, but who else will respect a movement of two Black men resolving something that started, this whole battle, situation for the last four-and-a-half years, where eHip-Hop’s gone crazy and it’ll probably kill New York rap, just from “Ether” and “Takeover.” Who else will respect us? They don’t care if the music and the culture suffers. So if we don’t stand up and come together in positions of power… this is God’s plan. This is not, there’s no disrespect, but other than a non-Black executive that would honor the situation. This is not a sellout. This is everything that was intended for the truth to be expressed this time.

AllHipHop.com: Well where would you place yourself in the top MCs if you had to? Where do you think is your position in rap history when it’s all said and done?

Nas: When it’s all said and done they all come after me, every last one of ‘em, White or Black.

AllHipHop.com: Who’s that –

Nas: Rappers. They all come from me, you know what I’m saying? At some point in time, whether it’s the shock value in these guys’ verses from when I first started, and you heard them start regurgitated and different artists talk about doing things and Jesus is now he’s dead, the shock value sound [referring to lyrics like, “I went to hell for snuffin’ Jesus,” lyrics or the lyrical pattern, or it’s the consciousness upbringing. It’s the balance upbringing. This all belongs to me.

And that’s a lot, a lot of times I see what’s happening with New York rappers, they don’t have enough style in their personality, in what they talk about off the records, when they not rapping. When they not rapping, they like back in the days I couldn’t get on say, like [disrespecting] Rakim’s wife or Big Daddy Kane’s son, and I’m gonna diss him in a record. That was blasphemy. You never did a record that, now it’s so messed up and New York is the kings of savvy and style. But we up here, lost and confused, disrespecting each other, that’s not how it’s done. Old school, some of that old school used to hate on us. My place now is to say y’all all my kids. But Ice Cube can really say it. KRS can really say it, but I’m having fun saying it too.

AllHipHop.com: But I mean here in New York you know, this whole New York, bring back to New York, what is that about? Do you co-sign that?

Nas: Yeah, but I mean New York is New York. It ain’t going nowhere. Yeah, I mean the thing is you know everybody else is having fun while everybody else is doing what they do. Up here, you know, everybody is confused; they [are] lost. You know [in the] ‘80s, we used to look up to you know a lot of different people from different walks of life. And you know everybody…I wear white t-shirts everyday too, but that’s an L.A. thing. You know what I’m saying. It’s more melting pot and that’s good because we all connecting with each others’ style and everything but then New York, I remember you know what we do.

AllHipHop.com: So in your opinion, to bring New York back we need to get that swagger back, basically?

Nas: To bring New York back we got to take it seriously, you know what I’m saying? They gotta take they selves seriously. Everybody’s like microwave music now, know what I mean, ‘cause it’s the way to eat. When I was doing this early on, [I did Hip-Hop] because I loved it. Now, they not artists, they opportunists. So it’s just a way to eat now. And that’s cool. But then of course, the music is gonna suffer.

AllHipHop.com: You mentioned The Jones Experience. So you have two label brands, along with Ill Will?

Nas: I have Ill Will for my release records, not over here in Def Jam. This Def Jam is Jones experience.

AllHipHop.com: Okay. And what about Ill Will because I know you had big plans for the label but never really –

Nas: It never came to fruition and I kind of wanted to put it to rest; it’s like, because it didn’t come to fruition, my dude was just part of the shine over me, getting me to do the slave s**t, know what I’m saying?

AllHipHop.com: And whatever happened to Quan?

Nas: I don’t know.

AllHipHop.com: You have no idea?

Nas: No.

AllHipHop.com: So what’s this treadmill? I feel that you get linked with cats and you’re supportive of them and they just kind of like –

Nas: It’s a hard place. It’s a hard road to travel. You know it’s not easy to move. You got to be like, a lot of people think they gonna get…it’s real. You can’t get in this and expect you gonna be Michael Jackson tomorrow. You got to put it down. You gonna have to take some, you gonna have to put your, you know, get in shape man, and let’s go at it. ‘Cause you know I’m not in this for faking. You know what I’m saying. And a lot of people think like you know why didn’t you sign me or why didn’t you sign me? It’s like I don’t think you’re the next Snoop Dogg. Do you think they’re the next Snoop? I got it, like asking these artists, do you really think you can pack [Madison Square Garden] one day in five years, ten years. How? What are you talking about? I’m looking for someone who can grow. They don’t have to do it overnight, but I’m looking for someone who really loves what they do. They take it down and you know it really come from the heart. They’re ready to go in and go hard.

AllHipHop.com: So, you’ve been at this a long time, what would you say the biggest difference with the game now than when you got in?

Nas: It wasn’t as much paper. Paper changed a lot. It wasn’t as easy to get in. You know dudes got it made today.

AllHipHop.com: Well you just said it was easier for you to get in back then ‘cause it –

Nas: For me, yeah. But it wasn’t a bunch of [imitations] out there. You had this guy, we had, we had everybody get airtime. Everybody got whatever happening label. Everybody’s doing it. You know you can’t walk down the street without some n***a without a record label and rap.

AllHipHop.com: Is this a good thing or a bad thing?

Nas: I think it’s great that we all love the rap game and that we all into it. I think it’s not good with the misunderstanding of what comes along being in it. You know they say like that less than 1% of n***as out here is gonna make it to where they see they selves supposed to be, and that’s kinda harsh reality.

AllHipHop.com: Word has it you have stopped smoking?

Nas: I smoke cigars. I’ve always smoked cigars. That’s you can mature with it man, so you can’t smoke a hundred blunts in one day. You know, you got to party, but every day? For what?

AllHipHop.com: A blunt for breakfast.

Nas: A blunt for breakfast…

AllHipHop.com: What’s the favorite album you got?

Nas: I don’t have one.

AllHipHop.com: Come on now, you have to have one.

Nas: Definitely don’t have one.

AllHipHop.com: Why wouldn’t you have one?

Nas: I don’t know what’s on each album.

AllHipHop.com: Really?

Nas: Nah, I get confused sometimes [with] what songs are on what album.

AllHipHop.com: What would you say is the biggest misconception about you?

Nas: That I’m not in total control, of every step of the way.

AllHipHop.com: Elaborate on that.

Nas: A lot of the weed smoking was the stage that set me free. And I never messed with any of these industry cats because there’s too many, I knew how easy it was for you to be behind a jail cell over one of these flunkies, you know. One of the kookie n***as that have you all tripped up. That ain’t no man s**t. That ain’t even gangsta s**t [to] get tripped up off one of these goofball n***as. So the thing about it, I stayed in my haze. [My] state of mind was perking all day long because I didn’t pay attention to none of that stuff.

AllHipHop.com: So how does Nas the rapper different from Mr. Nasir Jones?

Nas: I love being on stage. It’s everything to me, but sometimes people don’t know when to turn it off and the way they treat you is like it’s on every day. It’s all about rap, rap every day. They don’t know about life and stuff like that. You know, you gotta have a quality of life. So that’s real important to me. You see dudes frowning up all the time, paranoid and they’re [acting] 16, dude. They’re a grown man with kids, man.

AllHipHop.com: You smile.

Nas: Yeah. I smile all the time.

AllHipHop.com: What is your idea to stay connected with the youth?

Nas: It is what it is. Youth don’t want you to dumb down, ‘cause they not dumb. So you can’t, you got to do youth. You know they can understand that. [The] same way I understood the dudes that were over me when I was 12, 13 there wasn’t no 12, 13 year olds rapping. They were at least four years older than me if I bought their records. It was always like that.

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Nas said he’s less than two weeks from finishing his next LP, Hip-Hop Is Dead … The N (due on December 19), and he already has a prediction.

“All respect to all rappers on Def Jam, I love the label,” Nas said. “Without disrespect, I’m about to be the craziest sh– on Def Jam. But that should go without saying.”

Nas has a lot to boast about this time around. After his last project, the 2004 double LP Street’s Disciple, had a lukewarm reception, the New York legend feels confident he has another classic on his hands.

MTV News had a chance to preview some tracks last week — and to dispel some rumors, Nas is not leaving his roots. His LP is very much street, and there aren’t really any commercial tracks. Lyrically he still commands the vocal booth.

A bulk of his criticism the last few years has been his choice of beat selection. On Hip-Hop Is Dead, he worked with the best, including Dr. Dre, Just Blaze, Kanye West and others. You can hear the excitement in the producers’ music — they’ve given him top-grade material.

“It’s cool,” Nas said Monday about working with Dre on “QB True G,” which features a guest appearance from the Game. “I worked on Dre’s [1996] Aftermath album when he left Death Row. The second Aftermath album was [intended to be] the Firm album. I think him and [industry mogul] Steve Stoute got into a lot of beef, so the record got hurt when it came out. But that album is still a platinum monster. I know Dre was saying that n—as was bothering him, saying the Firm flopped or he turned pop, but that Firm album was not a flop. That record was a monster. Back then, [Interscope Records co-chairman] Jimmy Iovine was ready to send me a jet, trying to get me off of Sony because he was seeing my potential and what I needed to do.

“Since then, I hadn’t seen [Dre], but I bumped into him in a studio and he said he was ready to do my whole album right there on the spot,” Nas continued. “I just knocked out the joint I did with him.”

The beat has the feel of the dark party track Dre gave 50 Cent for the “Outta Control” remix, but it has a bit more bite. Nas raps on the beat that he and the Game came to “sprinkle a little bit of heaven for your ears.” The Game starts his verse by rapping that over a decade ago, he was a kid in a record store and had to decide whether to buy Nas’ Illmatic or Dre’s The Chronic because he only had money for one purchase. He decided to steal both albums.

“Game is a megastar, man,” said Nas, who appears on the Game’s upcoming The Doctor’s Advocate. “That n—a shut down a whole crew by himself. That’s big.”

Kanye West raps on and produced “Still Dreamin’.” Nas starts one verse scolding hangers-on who are looking for handouts, and on his second verse, he tells a story of a female newscaster who gets caught up in a drug dealer’s lifestyle.

” ‘Ye is that n—a,” Nas told. “His music is right. I wish I could’ve got more time in with him, actually. He comes through. N—as just be kicking it. Next thing you know, he plays me his sh– he’s working on, I play my sh–, then it comes from there. He’ll play me some sh–, and I’ll say, ‘Let me get that.’ ”

The song “Blunt Ashes,” where Nas talks about the missteps and betrayals of R&B legends like Prince, Alexander O’Neal and Bobby Womack, came about from the wordsmith just kicking it in the lab with another one of his friends, Philadelphia 76ers forward Chris Webber. Webber produced the track.

“We was in the studio in Kelis’ session,” Nas said about working with his wife. “We had a room next door, because I didn’t want to mess her session up, but I wanted to listen to something. I went in the other room, we was chillin’. One of my mans told Chris to put on one of his [beat] CDs. We was in there freestylin’. I started freestylin’ to one joint about sh– we just be talking about, and I was like, ‘This is my sh– right here. This is my joint.’ But Chris is my homie though. One of my closest homies.”

Another person you wouldn’t necessarily picture on a Nas record is Will.I.Am. The multitalented Black Eyed Peas frontman concocted the LP’s title track. Where some may expect a real pop sound like on Busta Rhymes’ “I Love My Chick,” Will went left and very dirty. He actually brought back the same bassline from Iron Butterfly’s “In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida,” which was also used for Street Disciple’s “Thief’s Theme.”

“It felt like the ‘Thief’s Theme’ to me,” Nas said. “It was one of the low-key Nas joints that you know about it, but you don’t want to look over there. You don’t want to deal with that. This [song] reiterated the vibe of ‘Thief’s Theme’ at another level. The title track is Will.I.Am taking pieces of sh– I did before, pieces of old-school hip-hop, slappin’ it all together and letting me do me. That’s what it is.”

Nas throws out a few punch lines on the album, including “If hip-hop is dead, we die together” and “Like my girl Foxy, a n—a went Def.” His lyrics are also very tough on radio and DJs. Nas says on the disc that if the impossible happened, if hip-hop did die, DJs would be the first people he’d punish.

“Let’s be real,” he said of the song on which he insists his wedding to Kelis was his second marriage — he married hip-hop first. “DJs play a big responsibility of what hip-hop is doing. … At the end of the day, it’s up to us to control and to own hip-hop. DJs need to challenge us rappers. They got so much power, they need to challenge us. We don’t challenge DJs by making enough crazy sh–.”

Nas also said that the phrase “hip-hop is dead” has a much more important meaning than just music.

“When I say ‘hip-hop is dead,’ basically America is dead,” he clarified. “There is no political voice. Music is dead. B2K is not New Edition. Chris Brown is great, I love Chris Brown, we need that, but Bobby Brown sticks in my heart. Our way of thinking is dead, our commerce is dead. Everything in this society has been done. It’s like a slingshot, where you throw the mutha—-a back and it starts losing speed and is about to fall down. That’s where we are as a country.

“I don’t wanna lose nobody with this, but what I mean by ‘hip-hop is dead’ is we’re at a vulnerable state,” he continued. “If we don’t change, we gonna disappear like Rome. Let’s break it down to a smaller situation. Hip-hop is Rome for the ‘hood. I think hip-hop could help rebuild America, once hip-hoppers own hip-hop. … We are our own politicians, our own government, we have something to say. We’re warriors. Soldiers.”

Snoop Dogg appears on the Scott Storch-produced “Play on Playa.” “Unforgettable,” which uses a sample of the Nat King Cole song of the same name, has Nas looking back on his life (”Mom’s cooking used to wake me up/ Deep/ ‘Cause now my wife’s cookin’ puts me to sleep”). “War” finds the legend going political, lashing out against what he calls unfair media views and “the white man’s paper.” Damien “Jr. Gong” Marley co-stars on that reggae-flavored track.

Nas hasn’t yet chosen a first single for Hip-Hop Is Dead, but said he’s leaning toward going with a real street record first, like the Game did with “It’s Okay (One Blood).”

“Every n—a under the age of 28 that raps — except for maybe five of you — needs to shut the f— up for eight months,” he said about what some of his peers should do in preparation for this album. “Get your mind right and learn what the f— to say. That’s gonna be a wakeup call. With all respect due, because they’re my comrades.”

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By now we all know El Presidente is coming to save hip-hop on November 21st. But the question still remains: Is his former foe turned friend Nas really following in his footsteps a few weeks after? Well YN doesn’t like questions. He likes answers. So I hollered at Antonio and the crew and took my lazy ass up to Def Jam to hear 5 new Nas songs. Now I recently got a new Blackberry that I don’t fully know how to work (plus I have wide fingers) so I didn’t really take notes while the music was playing but here’s what, to the best of my recollection, I can recall. Word to Ronald Reagan.

Track Un
The “Hip-Hop Is Dead” title track. It’s a higher-level Luda-like intro that lays out Nasir’s new blueprint. His various rhyme references will satisfy you hip-hop students as he name-drops everything from “the bigger the cap the bigger the peeling” to Dem Franchise Boyz white Tees. Only catch is it’s produced by Will I Am. Hey, don’t shoot the messenger? It knocks. Preemo, who?

Track Deux
Another one with the Black Eyed Pea behind the boards. The song played off that old standard “Unforgettable” and has never-blew singer Yvette Michelle hittin’ more high notes than Mariah. A little too musically all over the place for my taste.

Track Trois
Reggae-flavored joint that sounds a little similar to Cam’s “Bubble Music.” The Marley boys lend a hand. I ain’t mad at it.

Track Quatre
OK. Here’s the kicker boys and girls: Nas and Game together on a Dr. Dre track. I repeat: Nas and Game together on a Dr. Dre track. That’s right, rap scholars: Game can’t get a Dre beat for his album but he’s on one on Nas’ LP. Might be last time we ever hear Game on an official Dre beat. Surprisingly, Jones and Taylor are a good combination. Still I like the Doctor’s Advocate Nas/Game connection better. I also secretly heard that one and the QB soldier spits some shit on there like “Pro-black, I don’t even pick cotton out of aspirin bottles.” That’s some “Back to the Grill at the BBQ” shit.

Track Cinq
Only song I heard today with legitimate single potential. It’s called something like “Let Me In The Light.” Mr. West produced it, used some-old-school breakbeat drums and one of Nas’ homies does a good Anthony Hamilton impersonation on the hook. I might be buggin’ but the shit sounded hot to me. Maybe it was just Massa Reid’s boomin’ system.

3 Other Facts Y’all Give Way More Than 2 Shits About

1. Final album is gonna be Illmatic-like length. Maybe 12 songs.

2. Kanye has another track on there that he’s rhyming on.

3. And finally, yes, there’s a Nas/Jay collabo. Not on Kingdom Come but right chea. They knocked out 3 songs in 1 night and one is making it. Produced by Just… Large… Salaam… Timber… well of course, L.E.S. Life’s a bitch, ain’t it? Kudos, Leshan.

Still I did make a decision today. I’m really gonna give Nas his cover. No more back page tricks. Internet geeks: Rejoice!

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Nas is in full support of a continued, formal boycott of Cristal–but only if Hip-Hop steps up to replace the champagne, which typically sells for $450-$600 per bottle.

“I support a boycott if we could come up–like if we put up something, our own champagne. There’s tons of vineyards we could get into and buy,” Nas told AllHipHop.com in response to controversial comments made by Cristal’s managing director against rappers who drink the beverage.

“There’s tons of ways to get inside of that, so that we can have ‘Diddy / Nas champagne’ and put them out, and drink our own thing.”

Both Nas and Sean “Diddy” Combs are gearing up for fourth quarter album releases, but the entertainers haven’t forgotten a non-rap beef they share in common.

Diddy told AllHipHop.com, “Cristal definitely caught us out there. It was a learning lesson. At the end of the day, f**k Cristal. They don’t respect us. They’ll feel it.”

Combs vents about the brand on “Everything” featuring Nas and Cee-Lo. The track is taken from the mogul’s upcoming album Press Play that features Nas and Cee-Lo.

For years now, Cristal has been all the rage, though–and all over rap videos.

In 1999, when Diddy lent his vocals to Nas’ hit song “Hate Me Now,” the pair brandished bottles of the pricey champagne in the Hype Williams-directed music video.

The bottle was once a symbol of status for rappers until earlier this year when new managing director Frederic Rouzaud made comments that were seen as prejudiced to Hip-Hop culture.

Asked if an association with Hip-Hop could adversely affect the Cristal brand, Rouzaud offered: “That’s a good question, but what can we do? We can’t forbid people from buying it. I’m sure Dom Perignon or Krug would be delighted to have their business,” said Rouzaud in an interview with The Economist magazine.

Although he later adjusted his comments, it wasn’t long before music heavyweights like Def Jam president Jay-Z vocalized a boycott of the brand.

Nowadays, Nas said he and Diddy muse over their past and newfound lack of respect for the champagne.

“It’s funny like, I said to Diddy, ‘You know…do you understand that’s the most illest, flossiest video of rap [”Hate Me Now”]. Do you know we were the first to disrespect the Cristal bottle?” said Nas. “I was like, ‘we spit the s**t up, you [Diddy] spit on the camera and saying we disrespected them.’ We been disrespecting they bottle–treat it like 40 ounce. It’s like any other brand of hypocrites and it’s not surprising. It’s not surprising. It’s a joke.”

Nas doesn’t claim racism on Rouzaud’s end, but an emotion even more basic.

“The bottom line is all these dudes is jealous of Black men. Look, we look incredible. So stop making fly s**t, if you don’t want us to buy it, hell, how in the f**k we gonna not drink the most [expensive] s**t,” said Nas.”[It’s the] same with jewelry, man,” he continued. “Understand I’m gonna wear this motherf**king jewelry. I always buy some fly s**t, so they got a problem with a Black man, I know they jealous of me. I’m gonna make ‘em more mad. I’m gonna drink more of their s**t [to upset them] and boycott em. F**k ‘em.”

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