From its opening blues vamp, drenched in a Bo Diddley-meets-Muddy Waters rhythmic swagger, you know that rap legend Nas and his noted musician father Olu Dara have seized hip-hop by the throat on their new single “Bridging The Gap.” By now it’s a cliché for hip-hoppers to join the rap-rock brigade…

But there are precious few rappers who’ve bothered to tap the fertile sonic vein that produced rock, and as quiet as it’s kept, hip-hop as well. After all, with its double entendres, colorful language, relentless boasting, homespun machismo and tragicomic sensibility, the blues are a forceful parent to rap. Olu Dara and Nas brilliantly play off of the kinship of their music and manhood on their most breathtaking collaboration to date. “Bridging The Gap” is a soulful tribute to the roots shared by father and son, by the rural and the urban, and by two supremely gifted artists. 

“This is a song that, without us even trying [shows that] his music and my music in reality are the same,” Nas says about his spirited teaming-up with Dara. “No matter if it started years ago in the Delta, or if it was out in Queensbridge, it all comes back around.” In the song’s opening lines, Dara tersely spits his lyrics as the weeping harmonica and the shuffling cadence of African-flavored drums snake around his beautifully thrashing vocals. Like his son has done for New York, Dara declares his Mississippi roots and his wild youth. The elder statesman then tells of conceiving a son as he cleverly adapts Muddy Waters’ bravado to his musical tree in a prophetic couplet: “I named the boy Nasir, all the boys called him Nas/ I told him as a youngster, he’ll be the greatest man alive.” Nas picks up the conceptual thread and, taking a cue from his 

Father, pares production back to the basics and spins a poignant tale of his artistic mastery and familial roots, proclaiming that he and Dara are “bridging the gap/from the blues to jazz to rap/the history of music on this track.” 

But “Bridging The Gap” also celebrates the strong moral and physical presence of the father, an uplifting counterpoint to the plague of fatherlessness in hip-hop. “I grew up around my father and grandfather, then here I come, and here’s Nas,” Dara testifies. “That’s four generations that I’ve witnessed, and been a part of. To me that was a natural thing, because I grew up in Natchez; it was very unusual not to have a father around.” It was only after he migrated to New York and had two sons that Dara discovered the oddness of being congratulated for a paternal bond he took for granted. “I remember when Nas and his brother were born, and I would be with them all the time. And people would stop me on the street [and say], ‘It’s so nice to see a father with his son. I was taken aback by that. I looked around and I thought, ‘I’m an anomaly,’ which is a sad thing.” 

If they are indeed an anomaly, Nas and Dara intend with this bracing song to encourage others by their example of mutual respect and love. “I really look at this record as an example of how things can turn out positive later on,” Nas says reflectively. “My father’s made it, he 

Survived, and a lot of his peers are dead and gone. Some of my peers are dead and gone, but I still made it to where I am today. Through all the trials and tribulations of life, here we are, we can smile at each other, we can stand strong together, and say life is good and the love is there. 

It’s a great, great example for all American families to look at. And for those kids, and those rappers, who didn’t have their fathers around, now it’s their turn to be responsible when they have their kids. They’ve got to try that much harder to stick around.” 

“Bridging The Gap” is also remarkable for its heartening vision of masculinity nurtured by learning, tradition and affection rather than brutality or violence. “I learned from [my father] the difference between a tough guy putting on a front because he didn’t know anything and he had to protect himself and he felt unloved, and a real man,” Nas emphasizes in animated fashion. “A real man can let you see his vulnerability, and use it as bait, because he opens himself up to you, and [when] he opens you up to his vulnerability, he’s testing himself. Because at the end of the day, our confidence about our strength is where our power is. So we can open up that vulnerability that all these other so-called men are trying to protect and [use to] feel safe. I feel safe in my skin. I feel safe walking in my shoes. I feel safe about which I am. And I trust that I’m always going to be on top of my game.” 

If anyone has doubts that Nas is a master of his craft, and at the top of his game, they need only listen to “Bridging The Gap.” The song reaffirms Nas’ standing as one of the most fiercely gifted lyricists of all time. It also confirms his courage to go where few rappers have gone as 

Successfully before: into the vibrant heart of the Delta, into the edifying love between father and son, and into the murky waters of American manhood. This time around, he’s looked back to move us forward. As he insightfully observers, “the blues came from gospel, gospel from blues/ the slaves were harmonizing them ‘ahs’ and ‘oohs’/ old school new school no school rules/all these years I been voicin’ my blues.” In that pithy rhyme, Nas captures the finely mingled lineage of black music. He also articulates black music’s willingness to tell the truth about darkness and to offer hope in defiance of life’s utter bleakness. At their best, that’s what Nas, Olu Dara, the blues and hip-hop are all about. 

Words By Michael Eric Dyson 

Nas feat. Olu Dara – “Bridging The Gap” Video 56 K Windows Media

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Nas feat. Olu Dara – “Bridging The Gap” (Full length) 56K Windows Media

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