It’s 1951, Natchez, Mississippi and those black and white photos, turned sepia, that your grandparents captured, are reality for a Charles Jones, III, a small boy captivated by his environment. The woods, local guitarists and country dialect kept Jones on the edge of his seat, destined to discover the world, in hopes to touch his dreams of exploring life’s riches.

Those riches would turn out to be golden memories of Africa, unforgettable explorations and late nights full of Jazz performances and intimate discussions about progression and happiness. Through self-discovery and an expedition to Africa, Jones would soon become Olu Dara, move to New York City and plant a seed in a woman by the name of Fannie Ann, and through that connection, Dara made sure that love would be the foundation of his son’s traditions. January of 1973, would be the year Dara’s dream would come true, and Fannie Jones would give birth to a new form of music- a genre by the name of Nasir bin Olu Dara Jones.

Daru’s son would listen to music and be taught trumpet lessons at a young age and through the love language of music, Nasir was inspired to engage in art.

In 1978 Hip Hop was introduced to New York City, and in parts of The Bronx, the infection of drum patterns, disco grooves and spoken word spread across the city like Ebola. Countless girls and boys would engage in “break battles,” barbecues in the park and “street corner ciphers” became the way to converse. In Queens, Nasir was a victim, caught by the rapture of love.

By 1986, Dara would break up with Fannie Ann and Nasir, moving on to studying African culture, listening to music and carrying on traditions. He stayed engaged with the music.

In 1991, Nasir would record his first verse to a song entitled, “Live at the BBQ,” on Main Source's album, Breaking Atoms. This would be the start of a new era, for the Jones family. In 1994, his passion for music and his lessons invested as a child, would inspire him to create his debut album, Illmatic.

The album went on to be a Hip Hop classic and 14-years later, a 35-year old Nasir is now Nas, a critically acclaimed Hip Hip artist, known for his deep lyricism, his melodic poetry and his longevity.

From “Life’s a Bitch” to “Bridging The Gap,” neither Olu Dara nor Nasir Jones lost focus of the little boy in Natchez, Mississippi, dreaming of exploring life’s riches.

This month, we celebrate black history and black music with an intimate, one-on-one with Olu Dara, to discuss his near seven decades on Earth, his relationship with music, the NIGGER album and Fanny Ann’s one and only genre: Nas.

HipHopDX: Olu Dara, meaning “God is good” in Yoruba language, is your name. How much has Africa and spiritually played in the role of your music?
Olu Dara: Everything. It was there in my heart when I was kid, when I first realized I was alive. It was in Mississippi and that’s as close as Africa as you can get. With that experience, at the age of 20 or so, I traveled around Africa on a ship with the Navy. I got a chance to leave Mississippi and basically go straight to Africa, after a couple years of college at Tennessee State University in Nashville. Africa has always been apparent.

DX: As a young boy growing up in Natchez, Mississippi what did you listen to and whom did you aspire to be like?
O: I was in an area where there wasn’t much radio. I didn’t get a chance to listen to much radio until I was 12 or 13 and most of the music I listened to was the old people, the guitars, the juke or the people in the neighborhood. Mississippi is half Opera singers and the roots are deep. We had the Blues, but no big cities were in Mississippi, but it was right in these small neighborhoods and in the woods (where you’d live sometime) where you heard the music. I thought the whole world was like that, until I left there and found out that it was a very unique place to be.

DX: [Laughing] Yes, it is.
O: [Laughing] I don’t know how it is now, but Jackson is the largest city there right?

DX: Yes, I actually go to school here.
O: How did you wind up down there? [Laughs] It’s so many different ways you can live there. It depends on which city you live in and that determines what the land is like. There are different ways of living and thinking in Mississippi, believe it or not. There’s different ways of living, depending on where you are. I would go into different towns playing and found that people are completely different, in regards to the way that they think and everything. The culture was still harmonious at that time amongst the black people, when I was growing up. I don’t even remember hearing a loud argument or seeing fights, it was lots of calmness then. I’m ancient. I was born in 1941.

That’s not that old for people who really know what life’s like, but my experience was different. I was right in a neighborhood of black people who were lawyers, doctors, pharmacists, builders- it was like everybody was going off to college. My father’s generation was probably the first generation that a lot of people were looking forward to college and back then they had the G.I. Bill, during World War II. I was the generation after that and back then so a whole lot of black people in Mississippi went to college. It was like a prerequisite. You stay home, go to the military or go to college and most likely they were trying to get you to go to college. It was a wonderful experience. Continued on page 2 »