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Dave East Talks Nas Advice, Trump, “Don’t Shoot” with Hard Knock TV

blame it on Shake September 1, 2017

With Paranoia cracking the Top 10 on Billboard this past week, Dave East continues his sit-down with HardKnockTV.

After touching on growing up in Harlem, his love for story telling, and being locked up in Part 1, the Def Jam rapper keeps the discussion rolling with religion, sports and police misconduct.

In Part 2, Dave speaks on converting to Islam while in jail and Trump’s ignorance towards the Muslim community. He talks about playing AAU ball with Kevin Durant, before giving up his hoop dreams and approaching rap with full focus. East also offers insight to “Don’t Shoot” from his Kairi Chanel mixtape, a powerful track about police brutality and being afraid of being shot unjustly, which earned Verse Of The Month honors here at the DopeHouse last October.

The discussion continues on Part 3, where East breaks down his relationship with Nas and shares some advice he’s given over the years. He expresses the need for sub-genres in rap because “what he and Lil Uzi Vert do are not the same.” Don’t mistake that for slander, though. East embraces the new crop of artist’s impact on the culture, but lyricism and story telling will always be his bread and butter.

The convo comes to an end with Dave East breaking down the ‘paranoia’ title of his EP and shares a few producer names he wants to work with for his official debut album: Alchemist, Salaam Remi, and Just Blaze. Sheesh!