Thug Life Army

Nasir Jones aka hip hop legendary and influential figure NAS, has always been surrounded by controversy at every stage of his long and influential career as the conscience; and often most severe critic of hip hop since he first emerged from the Queensbridge neighborhood of Long Island City

The hip hop luminary is now a Def Jam Recordings artist, and Nas has returned to the headlines, declaring that his new 9th album, arriving in stores July 15th, will be untitled. The untitled new album follows-up Nas'' Def Jam debut, the Grammy nominated Hip Hop Is Dead, which entered the Soundscan chart at #1 in December 2006, on first week sales of more than 350,000 copies.

Nas says of his newest project "It's important to me that this album gets to the fans;" "It's been a long time coming. I want my fans to know that creatively and lyrically, they can expect the same content and the same messages. It's that important. The streets have been waiting for this for a long time. The people will always know what the real title of this album is and what to call it."

In advance of the untitled new album, which will be issued on the Def Jam/Jones Experience imprint, the first official single will be "Hero," produced by Polow Da Don.

Over the past few weeks, two tracks from the album have been leaked: "Black President" (produced by hip hop heavyweight DJ Green Lantern) and the album's closing track "N.I.G.G.E.R. (The Slave and The Master)" (produced by DJ Toomp), containing the provocative lyric, "They say we N-I-double-G-E-R/ We are, much more/ But still we choose to ignore the obvious/ Man, this history don''t acknowledge us/ We were scholars way before colleges..."

One of the albums highlights is "Fried Chicken" featuring hip hop rap notable Busta Rhymes, produced by the Grammy winner for Producer Of The Year, Mark Ronson. "Fried Chicken," finds Nas and Busta in top form, mixing elaborate metaphors over a decidedly throwback Ronson track. "When I was young, sitting in my room hammering out beats on my MPC, Nas was one of those truly legendary artists that you daydream, ''One day, I''ll get to do a track for...,''" says Ronson. "We finally met Grammy night in LA, and he said he wanted some stuff from me for the album. I started thinking to myself, as a Nas fan, ''What kind of beats would I love to hear him over?'' That's how the Dapkings and I came up with the track for ''Fried Chicken'', and I reckon it sounds like a stone cold classic."

The untitled new album will also include collaborations with producers Stic.Man from Dead Prez, Jay Electronica, Stargate, DJ Cool & Dre, and others.

Hip Hop Is Dead, the third album by Nas to enter the charts at #1, got started with the lead title track single "Hip Hop Is Dead," produced and co-written by and featuring will.i.am. of Black Eyed Peas. The cut (which sampled ''60s hits "Apache" and "In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida") made it inside the Top 40 on the Hot 100, Pop 100, Hot R&B/Hip hop Songs, Hot Rap Tracks, and Hot Digital Songs charts. It was followed-up with "Can''t Forget About You," featuring fellow Def Jam artist Chrisette Michelle, a jazz inspired Top 10 Rap track also produced by will.i.am, that riffed off a sample from the classic "Unforgettable" by Nat King Cole.

Time Out New York stepped out early in January 2007, and picked Hip hop Is Dead as "rap record of the year." Pitchfork's reviewer called it "the album I''ll give to people in 20 years when they ask who Nas was." The album release set up the "One Man, One Mic, One Night" 26-city North American tour, one of the biggest ever by Nas, from March through May 2007.

Here are some things from Nas for you to check out and download. AND BE SURE TO CHECK OUT THE NEW ALBUM FROM NAS - ''UNTITLED'' ALBUM ON JULY 15^TH.

Nas - "Be A Nig*er Too" Video: http://www.nasindependenceday.com/

Nas & DJ Green Lantern - The Nigger Tape (Mixtape):

DOWNLOAD IT FREE HERE

01 Intro

02 Gangsta Rap (rmx) (prod. DJ Green Lantern)

03 Cops Keep Firing (prod. DJ Green Lantern)

04 Hero (prod. Polow Da Don)

05 Black President (prod. DJ Green Lantern)

06 Association f. stic.man (of dead prez)

07 Legendary (Mike Tyson).. (prod. Salaam Remi)

08 Ghetto (rmx) f. Joell Ortiz (prod. DJ Green Lantern)

09 Seen it All (Green Mix)

10 Esco Let's Go (Full Song) (prod. Dj Khallil)

11 N.I.G.G.E.R. (Slave and Master). (prod. DJ Toomp)

12 Be a Nigger Too (rmx) f. Dante Hawkins (prod. DJ Green Lantern)

13 Surviving the Times (Original Cool and Dre Version)

14 Nas Timeline (mixed by Statik Selektah) (Nararated by Nas)

15 Outro f. Richard Pryor