The 2018 hip-hop song Graham Nash fell in love with: “A great piece of art”
On the face of it, Graham Nash explaining his love for hip-hop sounds very much like one of those “OK Grandad, let’s get you back to the care home” moments.
But in reality, as much as advancing age has started to creep up on him now, this is a man who has always been ahead of the curve when it comes to music. Between storming the British pop scene with The Hollies to turning things transatlantic with the combined supergroup forces of David Crosby, Stephen Stills, and Neil Young, he has always sonically been a step in front.
Decades later, by the time he wound up in the modern day, many things had obviously changed. People had come and gone, the landscape of music itself had altered, and yet the one thing that still remained consistent was Nash’s love of creating something new. There’s an inherent simplicity in that mantra, which evidently keeps him releasing records into his twilight years.
Yet at the same time, by the sheer virtue of not bowing out and maintaining his finger on the pulse of the world, it continues to open up his already expansive sonic palette to even newer horizons. And lo and behold, with a little help from those closest to him, this is where Nash discovered his love for a contemporary hip-hop great.
It started with a confession, before giving way to a sense of sonic wizardry that only a man who has been in this game long enough can master. “I haven’t been listening to a lot of new music, but it will find me!”, Nash admitted in a 2018 interview. As it happened at the time, he had the ultimate recent song to cite at his disposal.
“A perfect example is my girlfriend, Amy Grantham, who said… You’ve got to watch this video, ‘This is America’ by Childish Gambino. Holy fuck,” he said. To some, this might have been the last thing you expected to hear come out of the classic rocker’s mouth. But some things in life, like that song, are completely transcendental to both young and old.
Describing it as “stunningly brilliantly effective,” Nash added, “It’s a great piece of art; the song and the video. Check it out!” In this situation, context is everything – after becoming an American citizen in 1978, Nash has always been fiercely political over the events taking place in the country. It seemed like he had simply found a kindred spirit in Donald Glover in this case.
Indeed, the stark social commentary which ‘This is America’ narrates, from the significance of the Black Lives Matter movement to the epidemic of gun violence which continues to plague the country, demonstrates a fight but also a dismay at the fact that nothing has ever really changed. In all honesty, in the eight years since its release, it’s actually got worse.
Nevertheless, with a seal of approval from a man like Nash, it proves that ‘This is America’ is a truly transcendent product of our times. They may not come from the same time, place, genre, or background, but Nash and Childish Gambino recognise a shared mantra in one another. That truly is the power of music.
