WEST HOLLYWOOD, Calif. – Hip Hop heavyweight Nas delighted the throngs who packed the House of Blues Sunset Strip when he, along with several artists, played some of their most acclaimed hits; then they broke it down, sharing what they were thinking when they wrote the songs.
At the “How I Wrote That Song” event, which was sponsored by BMI and the Los Angeles Times, Nas puts the audience in his state of mind when he followed up what is unarguably one of the greatest rap albums of all time, Illmatic.
Nas says the song “Hate Me Now” materialized from the verbal darts his critics and so-called friends shot at him when he tried to evolve as an artist on his second CD.
“People here know about the ‘sophomore jinx’. We have to outdo the first one. I came back again and the record did real well for me. They said ‘he’s changing; he’s doing this and he’s doing that.’ And after it did well for me, I started to get a lot of hate. And it pissed me off. So the ‘Hate Me Now’ record was like the perfect record to answer back to all of that, to answer all the haters.”
The event, which took place on the eve of the 52nd Grammy Awards, also featured rapper Common, producer-songwriter Salaam Remi, songwriter Sebastian Krys and music sensation Colbie Caillat. –terry shropshire
