Over the summer, veteran rapper Nas appeared on a panel discussion in California to discuss his appearance on PBS’ Finding Your Roots program with Dr. Henry Louis Gates, Jr. The episode aired last night, and the Queensbridge representative took in the jewels he learned with the Harvard professor.
For the unfamiliar, Dr. Gates takes his guests on a journey to discover their family’s past by using the help of archivists combing through older papers and geneticists using DNA science to piece together the ancestral road map. With Nas, Gates goes back five generations into the past to reveal that his third great grandmother was sold as a slave for $830. Gates asks Nas how the discovery that much of his family were kept as slaves in the south, and he expressed anger and amazement at what was revealed to him.
Nas also mentions in his segment that he would consider purchasing the land in the Deep South where his ancestors lived, and there were several light moments of laughter in the clip as well. However, it was obvious that Nas was deeply moved.
Joining Nas on the program were dazzling actress Angela Bassett and senior presidential adviser Valerie Jarrett.
Watch the Finding Your Roots episode with Nas, Angela Bassett and Valerie Jarrett below.
—
Photo: PBS
