Queens, New York’s Nas has been quite candid about his struggles in promoting and releasing his latest album, Life is Good. The QB emcee has talked about how much divorce, parenting and money issues have all been integral in his growth, allowing him to see the more inspiring parts of life. In being so open about these things, he drew inspiration from another artist who also faced similar issues in his career, Marvin Gaye.
“I’m a big fan of Marvin, and I guess about 12 years ago I heard this album, Here, My Dear,” Nas told NPR recently. “Marvin was married to Berry Gordy’s sister. She was older than him and she was sophisticated, she was fly. She had the diamonds, the pearls. She knew how to live and she taught him how to live. She was his love and it ended and he chose to do an album about that when other styles of music were becoming popular at the time. He could have took advantage of the new style of music that was hitting. Instead, what he had to do — he had his tax problems, all kinds of things — what he needed to do was give this record to her, the money from the record. But most of all, he turned the record into a record about her. I didn’t want to do that. He inspired me, so I wanted to do it my way.”
Nas also shared that he hopes he can find the right woman for him now.
“Well, I thought that I found one, and I don’t know, bro. I’m messed up out here, man. I got the opportunity to meet people all over the world,” he shared. “Brilliant women, tall women, short women, slim women, thick women, you name it. But, I don’t meet them. I have the opportunities to and it’s a little bit — I’m a little shy, so I don’t meet them and I don’t know who’s right for me. I looked at people like Harry Belafonte — he’s been married like three times; Richard Pryor — he’s been married like five times. So many affluent men are faced with finding love problems. I’m sure beautiful, affluent women are faced with the same things sometimes. Halle Berry can’t seem to get a break, you know what I’m saying? So, it’s just something that I don’t know if we’ll ever figure out. I hope I do while I’m here.”
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On the album, Nas also explains that he wants to “do it again” on “Bye Baby,” speaking about marriage. When asked about this, the Illmatic emcee said he’s willing to give it another try.
“At some point I’ll do it again. It’d be great. I want to be better at it. I want to be the best at it. I want to have fun. It’s a beautiful life. You learn, you win, you lose, but you get up,” he noted. “I just wanted to make that one real record about that situation. I’m hearing artists, men, famous guys, cry when they heard that song and it just blows me away. For one, it means I nailed it and to me that is the greatest feeling of achievement. You don’t want to disappoint. Especially someone like me who’s been out of music for years and hasn’t had an album in like, four years. I don’t want to disappoint — that’s a nightmare to me. So when I hear people love it or like it or even cry to it, it just says ‘Wow, I did something right. I got it; I got it done. I’m not falling off.’ That song, I had to. It was to me the most important record on the album.”
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