Nas: "hip-hop is dead"

Nas has complained that greedy, late-coming rap stars have caused the death of hip-hop. The New York rapper said newcomers and the money involved has tainted the music.

Nas called his 2006 album Hip-Hop Is Dead, and in an interview with the Boston Herald reiterated: "It died - we're just picking up the bones in the graveyard and banging drums with the bones and recreating what was there.

"It definitely died, but that doesn't mean that records can't be made, that thing can't happen to get the world in a frenzy again. The difference is I don't know who these people are, I don't know what their intentions are and I don't think they care."

"I don't know who these people are, I don't know what their intentions are and I don't think they care"

Nas

on latter-day raps stars

Nas added: "It's just about money. And that's cool, I like money. But it's dead... I'm glad it became a business because that's the way of life and that's the way it happens. But before it was the thing to do, it was the most scariest, most beautiful, the most genius you ever witnessed. Now it's just a ghost of what it was.

"Artists get signed all over the place. They get told to make music like this or that, tattoo themselves up and they think they're gangstas and that's rap."

Nas is currently preparing a collaborative album with reggae musician Damien Marley, and is one of many guests on Dr Dre's forthcoming album Detox.