I'm going to get straight to the point. "Road to Zion" was the starting point that led us to where we are now. Distant Relatives is nothing short of an extension of everything I envisioned was possible from that moment. Nas and Damian Marley work as a well oiled machine on this album, giving us hope and empowerment through pictures of hardship and struggle. 'Strong Will Continue', for example, talks about the struggle of life and having it in you to keep going despite adversity and obstacles. One of my favorite tracks on the album is 'Leaders' because of its mellow production and message praising the good, trashing the bad and encouraging the future. Several other tracks like 'As We Enter', 'Tribal War', 'Dispear', 'Patience' and 'Nah Mean' ride out nice too.

Africa, which is the inspiration for this project, also sets the backdrop for where they go musically. A majority of the production is handled by the Marleys (Damian and Stephen) and Eric Sermon as it fuses reggae, tribal, hiphop, rock and jazz. Naturally, its excellent. Nas' lyrical contribution is top-notch, which he does often on cause driven music. The combination works very well and the album overall is rock solid, though I see it being underrated by the mainstream. Either way, I got my copy and it knocks.