On his show last night, Tavis Smiley sat down withNasto discuss his classicLPIllmatic(which turned 20 this year and is being celebrated with a reissueand feature-length documentary).He discussed his relationship with the album, his current projects, and shared advice with young rappers.
On being respected in hip-hop 20 years later:
"I didn't ask for it. 20 years ago, I didn't think about it. It just happened. It just crept up on me. It's just crazy. I'm happy. I'm elated. I'm enjoying it.
"I've just been lucky in a lot of ways. In rap years, I'm up there. Dogs live longer than rappers, it's just bad. I've been lucky, man, I kind of just stay out the way. I get in and get out the way."
On Illmatic:
"It was bold. It was revealing. It was honesty. It was introspective. It was really painting a picture of everything I seen, everything that was around me, everything that I loved at the time. ... I used old school terms in that and stuff, but it's cool because it's right there cemented in that time."
On if he's better now than 20 years ago:
"I don't know. Sometimes I think about 20 years ago and what I wanted to do if I wasn't bombarded with the music business. I can see myself doing some real good things moving forward. I was cool back then, now, I might be better. ... What you gettin' at?"
On one of the greatest moments of his career:
"De Niro said Illmatic at Tribeca Film Festival, opening night. It was surreal."
Read our5-10-15-20 interviewwith Nas.
