Pitchfork Forkcast: Video: Nas [ft. the Game]: "Hustlers"

Video: Nas [ft. the Game]: "Hustlers"

It's taken several months, but the video for the KY- and Patrón-sleek "Hustlers"-- in which Nas joins with the Game to declare that Hip Hop Is Dead-- has finally snuck out. So if they ever thought the East Coast and the West Coast were gonna collide, guess what, they do here. Over cinematic strings and ominous beats, the Game recalls trying to decide between buying The Chronic or Illmatic, and opting to steal both: "I was the only Compton nigga with a New York state of mind." Like much of Nasir Jones' latest album, it's an ode to rap's bygone days, self-referential because Nas has the records to let him get away with it-- even when the tough-guy poses can't really keep him from occasionally coming off like one of indie-rap's grandmotherly scolds. Anyway, Nas already made his feelings about "hustlers" crystal-clear on the album's closing track, the a cappella "Hope": "You a hustler, you ain't a rapper."

After all the delay, there's not much to say about the actual video, directed by R. Malcolm Jones. The Game is in it, and so is Nas. They ride elevators and drive fancy cars against a presumably green-screen backdrop that should be (yet sadly isn't) some kind of Roger Rabbit homage. Not dead, per se, but there's a reason this clip wasn't properly released.

[from Hip Hop Is Dead; out now on Def Jam]

Thu: 05-15-08: 04:15 PM CDT
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