Playboy captured a raw and honest conversation between two renown rappers, Nas and Travis Scott. Since they are from two different eras, they discuss the generational divide in the world of hip-hop music. They touched on different aspects such as the evolution of rap and what the future holds for the industry after them, and political issues that go along with being a rapper.
In the interview, Travis Scott acknowledged, “The past generation knocked down so many doors where, you know, they were spitting a lot of pain, man. They was dealing with a lot of police stuff. We’re still dealing with that now, but it wasn’t so free. Now we got more of a voice at the label.”
Nas agreed with Travis’ statement, “Nowadays the pain has changed. We’re after different things. We broke past the barriers.” “We understand what we need to do and we’re in control of what we’re doing, and no one can stop it now. No one can tell us what to do, what we can’t do. Rap music can’t be stopped now.”
Scott began to elaborate on political issues in the rap game, “I wouldn’t say I don’t feel compelled to speak on political issues; sometimes you just don’t want to speak too much on stuff you don’t know much about.” “It’s not like I’m not thinking about what’s going on in the world. I’m an expressive artist, but with media and shit, it gets misconstrued.”
Nas added on to Scott’s statements, “One thing we can’t allow politics to do is take over our mind and make us fall into their game. What’s going on in the news could consume our lives. If that happens, life doesn’t go on.”
As they finished up, Nas concluded, “The hood will always be a voice for the voiceless and the marginalized communities when it comes to breeding the next generation of MCs.” “They always going to yell out and say what’s going on. It’s going to get more fly and futuristic. But the message is always: We want food, shelter, health care and all the things we’re deprived of. We want no police brutality. We want all these things. That’s what hip-hop is talking about.”
Click here to read their conversation in full.
