#Nas distant relatives full#

The track is preceded by a piece of interview with Dennis Brown taken from the 6-part documentary on reggae called Deep Roots. 'Tribal war, we nuh want no more a dat, everyone deserve to earn and every child deserve to learn.' A next track relying on a reggae classic, track 8 on the album, is Land Of Promise with riddim and vocal parts taken from the late great Dennis Brown's Promised Land, originally recorded with Aswad. The track is called Tribal War and uses the vocal-melody-line of 70s reggae classic Tribal War by Little Roy (Earl Lowe). On the second track the two are joined by Somalian poet and rapper K'Naan for one of the couple of collaborations with other artists on the album.

#Nas distant relatives full#

Bass in full effect right from the start. Great opening, one of my favourite tracks on the album. Jr Gong starts 'As we Enter, Come mek we take you pon the biggest adventure'. The opening track, As We Enter, shows both on an uptempo beat based on Mulatu Astatke's Yegelle Tezeta, letting every listener know: the album just started, join us on this journey. Besides all that, as said, the album is lyrically very very strong too, lyrics that are included in the booklet and can be read at the distant relatives website. NAS' flow and laid back yet strong rhyming makes this a very diverse set, a true winner for fans of dancehall, hiphop and if you ask me fans of just good music. Damian's singing and delivery is perfectly timed and musically continuing where he left off with Welcome To Jamrock. Having both of them singing on each track as opposed to doing separate tracks makes this the special project it turned out to be. Wicked vibes and superb production too, sound is heavy! NAS, who has been a big player on the hiphop scene ever since his first excellent and now classic debut album Illmatic, sounds right at home on the more reggae and dancehall styled backing tracks and Jr Gong likewise on the more hiphop-styled beats. Marley stated: 'A lot of charity albums come off corny we want this to be something you'd play in your car.' Well, it's more than that, I'd play in the car, at home, on the bike, in the club and where not. The album contains samples from various African musicians and proceeds will go to projects in Africa. Conscious, top quality lyrics all the way, in line with their intention of an album heavily revolving around Africa with their commentary on the continent and on global social issues. There's reggae and dancehall influences, hiphop influences and some soul and R&B influences too. As Marley told Rolling Stone: 'We're trying to have a sound that's reminiscent of both of us, but not exactly like either.', they succeeded in that this album is the perfect example of crossover projects turning out to excellence. Gong' Marley teamed up with rapper NAS, continuing their succesfull collaboration on the track Road To Zion from the Welcome To Jamrock album. Marley, Halfway Tree and Welcome To Jamrock) for his next release Damian 'Jr. A project working out to excellence if you ask me.