Clearly the highlight of the entire SXSW festival thus far. Shot last night in Austin, Texas, in promotion of the duo’s upcoming Distant Relatives LP. Big up to CrunchyMunchin1. They call it murder.

What started off to be a collaborative EP “about Africa” between Nas and Damian “Jr. Gong” Marley has matured into a full-length magnum opus, to be titled Distant Relatives. The duo have been performing tracks from the project at this year’s Rock The Bells festival, and have recently released an EPK (seen above) and dedicated MySpace page for the project itself.

While no label or release date has been revealed for the album, the trailer reveals just how deep they are into the project. Previewing numerous songs, and revealing footage of them in the studio with several musicians (and even a children’s choir), the project seems very close to being completed. A recent Billboard article stated that they are around 85 % done with the record and hope to finish it up after Rock The Bells wraps in August. The album will also include collaborations with Stephan Marley and rapper K’Naan.

Said Nas, “I just think it was me and Damian finding our way. When you have two different artists working on a record when they’re used to doing their own thing their own way, it’s not as easy as people may think. We just flowed, and the next thing we looked up and there were so many songs done or so many songs started and worked on…we just decided to keep it going. It’s not reggae. It’s not rap. It’s different shit for each of us.” – DJ Pizzo