Lyrical genius Nas has had music pumping through his veins for over 30 years, and shows no signs of slowing down.
On Wednesday, he revealed his newest partnership with MasterClass — an online platform for seasoned professionals to share their expertise — which is set to begin Oct. 14.
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The opportunity is a dream come true for the rapper, who at an early age was inspired by Motown and desired to learn more about the music industry outside of the business aspect. Now, as a pioneer, he isn’t comfortable simply existing within the music industry, but he wants to provide opportunities to open the door for new artists.
According to Complex, Nas shared: “MasterClass is a great thing for people to get the inside scoop on what’s going on with artists, producers, actors, and people. I think it’s dope that we take time out of our lives to sit down and think about what it took for us to get here, and think about our journey and share it with people in a way that’s different than we ever did before. I think the whole thing is a great concept.”
What Can Students Expect?
Nas will be instructing a 12 part video series where participants will have the opportunity to dissect and record original music. The course is open to individuals of all calibers including industry professionals, rising artists, actors and the general public. The course breakdown will allow users to comprehend the various stages of storytelling.
“It’s all about giving you what you need in chapters, increments, and giving you the vibe,” Nas told Complex. “It’s sort of hard to break it down, so those different classes and different steps make the most sense to me. That’s how I would like to receive it from an artist, so I thought that that’s the way for the person that’s watching it to give them the time to soak it in, each one piece-by-piece.”
He continued: “I break it down piece-by-piece, and each piece is different. Each piece gives you more of my life. A lot of it is about my life journey.”
In conjunction with the new MasterClass series set to release next week, Nas not only dropped his new single “Big Nas” produced by Hit-Boy — his collaborator for “King’s Disease” — but he also released a corresponding video directed by Ben Dean. The creation of the music was recorded for the MasterClass.
While Nas received massive success with his Grammy Award-winning album, he wanted to go in a different direction for his course to expose fans to a new experience and sounds unrelated to his recent album drop.
“I wanted MasterClass to be MasterClass and ‘King’s Disease 2′ to be ‘King’s Disease 2,'” he said, according to Complex. “Two different things altogether. So the video for the song has its own style. I didn’t want to do a performance. I didn’t want to do what I would do for King’s Disease stuff, but I had to take a different approach.”
Why Should People Take The Course?
For the rap mogul, the opportunity to pass on skills and knowledge is timeless. In a day and age where many are breaking into the industry trying to mimic the tunes and rhythm of other artists, Nas wants to remind his students it is valuable to find your own lane.
“I come from that era of having to completely have your own sound, voice, and everything, and to have a career with that and not just one album,” he said. “And to do things where I also adapt slightly from what’s happening today, because, to me, that’s dope.”
Nas now joins an impressive list of previous industry professionals as instructor. As AfroTech previously told you, GrandMaster Flash is currently teaching at The University of Buffalo.
