Lauryn Hill, Nas, Cypress Hill, Black Star, Mobb Deep to perform classic albums at Rock the Bells 2011

Traveling hip-hop festival Rock the Bells is taking a page out of the genre’s history books by focusing on a set of game-changing albums for this year's showcase.

Though still relatively downsized from lineups of the past, a who’s who of rap royalty, including Lauryn Hill, Nas, Cypress Hill, Mos Def and Talib Kweli, Mobb Deep, Raekwon and Ghostface and the GZA, headline the bill for the eighth year of the multi-city festival that begins Aug. 20 at San Bernardino’s San Manuel Amphitheater.

Continuing last year’s move to highlight influential albums, this year’s batch of headliners will take on entire sets from the albums that made them respected giants in the game: Hill performs “The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill,” Nas tackles “Illmatic,” Cypress Hill will do “Black Sunday,” and fans pining for Mos Def and Talib Kweli to reunite as Black Star will be rewarded as they performs their 1998 self-titled debut album.

At a launch party for the concert at House of Blues on Tuesday night, the excitement from eager reporters was matched by the batch of performers who assembled onstage for the announcement.

An e-mail attributed to Nas blasts Def Jam execs for their musical direction

Nas has never been one to mince words. He’s previously used albums to declare that “Hip Hop Is Dead,” and the cover of his last record shows him shirtless with whipping wounds in the shape of an N to represent the racial epithet he planned on naming the album.

The latest controversy involving the New York-based rapper arrives in the form of a fuming e-mail allegedly written by Nas and directed toward label heads at Def Jam, including L.A. Reid. The missive was sent to numerous blogs Thursday, including the Lefsetz Letter -- the letter in it's entirety can be read here.

Sources close to the rapper have confirmed the authenticity of the letter to both XXL magazine and MTV, adding that it was not meant to be seen by the public. They added that the rapper wasn’t bothered by the leak. A source at Def Jam Recordings, however, told The Times that the e-mail wasn't real, though that person declined to go on the record.  

In September, Nas took to Twitter to announce that his fans could anticipate “The Lost Tapes: Vol. 2,” a sequel to the 2002 compilation of unreleased works.

But the project, which he told MTV would be released Dec. 14, appears to be in label purgatory, if the lengthy letter is to be believed. 

With a blunt subject line of “Put My [expletive] Out,” the e-mail allegedly from Nas proclaims he is “nobody's slave” and pleas for the label's respect and support.

"I won't even tap dance around in an e-mail, I will get right into it," the e-mail said. "People connect to the Artist @ the end of the day, they don't connect with the executives. Honestly, nobody even cares what label puts out a great record, they care about who recorded it. Yet time and time again its the executives who always stand in the way of a creative artist’s dream and aspirations. You don’t help draw the truth from my deepest and most inner soul, you don’t even do a great job @ selling it."

The e-mail goes on to state that its author believes the main problem with the suits at Def Jam is that they want to be the stars instead of the artists.

"This isn't the '90s, though. Beefing with record labels is so 15 years ago. @ this point I just need you all to be very clear where I stand and how I feel about 'my label,' ” it continues. “I could go on Twitter or Hot 97 tomorrow and get 100,000 protesters @ your building but I choose to walk my own path my own way because since day one I have been my own man."

The e-mail attributed to the Queens rapper looks at the project as a "movement" and a crucial set-up piece for his career and wants the label to stop being its "own worst enemy."

-- Gerrick D. Kennedy

twitter.com/gerrickkennedy

Photo: Rapper Nas performs on BET's 106 & Park in New York City. Credit: Peter Kramer/Getty Images

Album review: Nas and Damian Marley's 'Distant Relatives'

During the early ’90s, reggae-rap collaborations were ubiquitous, with the likes of Mad Cobra, Shabba Ranks and Bounty Killer blending their ragged dancehall patois with break-beats and raw raps. But as hip-hop assimilated into the mainstream, it ignored commercially marginal genres like reggae and jazz in favor of R&B and Top 40. Accordingly, “Distant Relatives,” the much-delayed union of Nas and Damian Marley, represents the first big-ticket pairing between the disparate worlds in recent memory.

The idea of unification threads the project, with Nas claiming on the coda of album finale “Africa Must Wake Up,” “we’re all distant relatives … whether you’re from China, Africa, Afghanistan or Israel.” Recorded with a live band and an array of guest spots including Joss Stone, Lil Wayne and the Somalian-Canadian rapper K’naan, the album vacillates between the dreary and dynamic. When hewing to upbeat burners like “Nah Mean” and the Ethio-jazz exoticism of “As We Enter,” Marley and Nas are at their best, trading verses with artisanal ease.

Yet leadened by reductive philosophies and crippling self-seriousness, the record often feels overly ponderous. On the catchy but clumsy “Patience,” Nas squanders a haunting Amadou and Mariam sample by asking a line of questions worthy of the Insane Clown Posse’s infamous “Miracles.” (“Was it a lightning storm that killed the dinosaurs? Who made up words? Who made up numbers?”)

Nas and Marley have created an intermittently novel and vexing record, one that proves that the two genres need not be so distant, provided they can avoid didacticism.

— Jeff Weiss

Nas and Damian Marley
“Distant Relatives”
Republic
Two and a Half Stars (Out of four stars)

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Live review: Kanye West, Queen Latifah highlight 'Common & Friends' benefit show

“I’ve been to a lot of charity events, but I’ve never seen anything like this.”

Old-school rapper Heavy D surveyed the sold-out Hollywood Palladium crowd gathered for the second annual “Common & Friends,” a star-studded affair that featured appearances from a seemingly endless cavalcade of A-list hip-hop stars to benefit Common's Common Ground charity.

The audience had already seen a series of highlights. De La Soul opened the show with a quick, high-energy set, punctuated by a surprise appearance from masked rapper MF Doom, who ferociously ripped through his verse from “Rock Co.Kane Flow.”

Black Thought and Amir “Questlove” Thompson represented for the Roots, and Ludacris ignited concertgoers with a crowd-pleasing set that culminated with “I Do It for Hip-Hop.” The latter allowed him to introduce Nas, who appears on the recorded version (video here).

After a simmering take on “One Mic,” Nas looked on in appreciation as the night’s host, Common, proceeded to spit most of Nas’ “N.Y. State of Mind” verbatim.

The crowd was also treated to an impromptu Black Star reunion, with Mos Def and Talib Kweli hitting the stage together. The two galvanized the audience with solo hits “Umi Says” and “Get By,”  respectively.

But it was Heavy D who offered up one of the most surprising highlights of the show. Among the many unbilled performers of the evening, even those too young to remember Heavy D's late '80s/early '90s hits such as “We Got Our Own Thang” and “Now That We Found Love,” responded to his showmanship and the enduring qualities of the songs.

Word had been circulating throughout the day that one Kanye West would also be among the surprise performers, a fact that Common teased the audience with briefly.

“He’s still going through some things, trying to deal with everything that’s happened because of a choice he made, so he couldn't make it tonight” Common said, obviously referencing West’s meme-generating mike grab from Taylor Swift at the 2009 MTV VMAs. “But he still wanted me to send his love to everyone.”