Blood Diamond

It looks like Leonardo DiCaprio is a Hip-Hop head.

The common link between the prominent appearance of Thief's Theme in Martin Scorsese's The Departed and Nas doing a track for the upcoming film Blood Diamond is that aforementioned A-List actor. Subsequently, just as the Street's Disciple standout was the sole rap song featured throughout The Departed, Nas popping up, seemingly out of the blue, on the soundtrack to Blood Diamond is another good look for the rapper and movie alike. On one hand, now Blood Diamond, and the issue central to its story, the infamous diamond trade in Africa, will likely connect with the otherwise-elsewhere rap music audience, while Nas too gets to broaden his listenership, and flex his creative muscle as well.

Blood Diamond is released in US theaters on December 8th.

[NAS]
They dug me out the soil in the mines of the motherland
Now I'm misplaced, one hand to another hand
Illegal smuggling, people struggling
Wish they could just throw me back in the mud again
Yeah, guess that's how we got here
Slave trade then the diamond trade
Every child's afraid
When his mother and father get sprayed
Forced in the army, young killer birgade
Gets a new name and then they give his nose glue
Till his mind can't take what he's going through
Looking in that dirt for that ice so blue
Then the royal family, the ice goes to
And this thing has to change
Feeling half-ashamed
As I rap with my platinum chain
When you shop for a gift for me, you think about the misery?
The same way we made apartheid history
We can do the same thing to the conflict ice
But everybody wanna shine, right?

Everybody wants Heaven but nobody wants dead
Everybody wants diamonds without the bloodshed
Everybody wants Heaven but nobody wants dead
Everybody wants diamonds without the bloodshed
They want the shine on 'em

My VVS glimmers on my chest
200-thou-encrusted watch on my wrist
I wonder how people starve to death
When God bless the land that lacks the harvest
The stone's are quality, but they homes are poverty
And the whole world ignores the robbery
Bought my girl pretty rocks when she's mad at me
Tear-drop shapped, uh, perfect clarity
In shock, so many are killed annually
'Cause of greed, lust, and pure vanity
Stop talking and do something about it
Every holiday season, jewelry stores crowded
Kids snatched from their homes, mutilated alive
Husbands seperated from wives, keep a Jesus piece to be fly
But back in the day there was a time when they called us shine

Nas: Shine On 'Em (Blood Diamond)