Nas Talks the N-Word, Black Presidents Backstage in New York

Last week Nas played a special Rolling Stone gig at New York's intimate Highline Ballroom and sat down to chat about his big year and untitled album. "With the Don Imus situation, Oprah Winfrey's show where they had a big conversation about the derogatory language in hip-hop music, I felt like wow, the timing with this album is so perfect," he says. "The album ends with the song 'Black President,' and it really happens this year — it gets no better than that." Click above to watch the New York MC in action.

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Song Stories

“Help Me”

Joni Mitchell | 1974

Joni Mitchell wrote and recorded this song for her album Court and Spark, but she had to switch from her regular band to make the song sound exactly the way she wanted. "I had attempted to play my music with rock & roll players," she told Rolling Stone. "They’d laugh, 'Awww, isn't that cute? She's trying to teach us how to play.'" Mitchell switched to a jazz band, Tom Scott’s L.A. Express, and scored the biggest hit of her career in the process.

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