Carlos Santana feat. Nas-Back in Black

Written by John M. Ellison IV

I’ve always had a strong admiration for Carlos Santana’s guitar playing, AC/DC’s Back in Black is one of my favorite songs and they’re times that I prefer Nas over Jay-Z…yeah, I do, deal with it. So, you would think Nas and Carlos Santana doing Back in Black by AC/DC would sound great! Well, after checking out the performance on Lopez Tonight. With the utmost respect, All I can ask is, HOW CAN NAS FUCK UP “BACK IN BLACK?!” I mean, don’t forget, Nas did do a track with Korn on their “Take a Look in the Mirror” album which I enjoyed and felt both artists brought something out of each other.

To emphasize, I’m not that “rappers and rockers should stay separate” guy at all, but, from a musical standpoint, the vocal pattern displayed in Back in Black with vocals by Brian Johnson are quite similar to rap. Actually, they’re a ton of rock songs that display what would be considered “melodic rapping.” For example, on “Back in Black” I noticed a kind of syncopation-driven singing rather than actual melodic singing. So, in that case, you would expect a rapper adapting to a song like “Back in Black” easily. Seriously, the performance on Lopez Tonight sounded like Nas rapping out of key. As soon as I get a video of the Lopez Tonight performance, I’ll post it.

To be fair, the studio version does sound a little more tolerable sound wise. But, to some more seasoned Nas and Santana fans, it would be a disappointment. But, to the new crop who are still new to Nas and Santana might be more open towards this collaboration they will probably enjoy it. Hopefully the rest of Carlos Santana’s album “Guitar Heaven: Santana Performs the Greatest Guitar Classics of All Time” sounds better and is more promising than this collaboration.