Music
The album marks the first collaboration between Nas and his father Olu Dara on a Nas album since Dara's appearance on "Dance" from 2002's God's Son. Olu Dara is featured on the title track "Street's Disciple" and lead single "Bridging the Gap". Aside from Ludacris ("Virgo") and Quan ("Just a Moment") no other MC's actually deliver a verse on Street's Disciple. Busta Rhymes plays hypeman to "Suicide Bounce" and Doug E. Fresh beatboxes on "Virgo". Kelis (Nas' ex-wife) helps sing the chorus along with the bridge on "American Way". The album does feature many singers though, including: Amerie ("Rest of My Life"), Emily ("Reason"), Maxwell ("No One Else in the Room") and Keon Bryce ("War"). Nas also uses a voice synthesizer to make his voice high-pitched for his female alter-ego Scarlett, who appears on "Sekou Story" and "Live Now".
Street's Disciple features multiple socio-conscious and political songs, such as "A Message to the Feds, Sincerely, We the People", "American Way" and "These Are Our Heroes". The latter (originally titled "Coon's Picnic") contained attacks directed toward multiple black celebrities including: O.J. Simpson and NBA superstar Kobe Bryant. Another topic addressed by Nas were important women in his life or females in general. "Getting Married" is dedicated to his then-newlywed wife Kelis Rogers-Jones, "Me & You (Dedicated to Destiny)" is, aptly titled, directed toward Nas' daughter and "Makings of a Perfect Bitch" describes most men's idea of the ideal woman. Death and appreciating life are the subject to several songs as well such as "Live Now", "Rest of My Life" and "Just a Moment".
Read more about this topic: Street's Disciple
Famous quotes containing the word music:
“I’d rather you shot at tin cans in the back yard, but I know you’ll go after birds. Shoot all the bluejays you want, if you can hit ‘em, but remember it’s a sin to kill a mockingbird.... Mockingbirds don’t do one thing but make music for us to enjoy. They don’t eat up people’s gardens, don’t nest in corncribs, they don’t do one thing but sing their hearts out for us. That’s why it’s a sin to kill a mockingbird.”
—Harper Lee (b. 1926)
“... the majority of colored men do not yet think it worth while that women aspire to higher education.... The three R’s, a little music and a good deal of dancing, a first rate dress-maker and a bottle of magnolia balm, are quite enough generally to render charming any woman possessed of tact and the capacity for worshipping masculinity.”
—Anna Julia Cooper (1859–1964)
“Your remark that clams will lie quiet if music be played to them, was superfluous—entirely superfluous.”
—Mark Twain [Samuel Langhorne Clemens] (1835–1910)