Nas Talks “Daughters” Track on CNN’s Starting Point

Nas stopped by CNN’s Starting Point this morning (June 13) to talk about his poignant “Daughters” track with host Soledad O’Brien.

“It’s a different thing for me, having a teenage daughter,” Nas opened up saying, as candidly as he did on the song, which talks about his relationship with his 17-year-old daughter, Destiny. “It’s different for me. I gotta be a parent and because of the relationship I had with my daughter’s mother and being in this business, it kind of took me away from her and took me away from being that parent that was there all the time.”

That’s when O’Brien interjected, “Do you think you were a bad parent or do you think you just weren’t as good as you could’ve been?”

“You know, I ask her that from time to time and she says I was great,” Nas retorted. “She says I was cool. So, yeah, I did my best…but it wasn’t good enough for me. So, that’s why I did this record.”

As Nas raps on the song—“A box of condoms on her dresser then she Instagrammed it”—he explained to O’Brien and her crew of journalists that the incident sort of triggered his introspection of how he parents.

“I saw what she was tweeting and I’m like, ‘That’s not my kid right there,’” Nas told the longtime CNN host. “She’s putting on this kind of thing for the world. It’s like an act to me. It just wouldn’t stop and it wouldn’t stop. People were blogging about it and stuff. This song also was a way for me to teach her and kinda embarrass her at the same time, beating myself up for not doing certain things that I should have did.”

God’s Son added that his son, Knight, gives him another chance at being a better parent, although he admits raising a daughter as a man is “different” than raising a son.

The revered Queensbridge lyricist is currently promoting his 10th studio album, Life Is Good, which is scheduled for a July 17 release.