As some of you LxNxM readers might already know, Nas and Damian Marley have been working on a highly anticipated album titled Distant Relatives.   Not surprisingly, while working on the yet-to-be-released album, the two artists had some great conversations about life, music and history.  The stories and ideas they exchanged eventually grew into a shared vision of a project much bigger than just an album:  a documentary film and series of events set to examine the complex history and often under-appreciated relationship between reggae and hip-hop.  Sounds like a great idea, right?

Thankfully for us the National Geographic Society thought it was a good idea too, and last night they hosted Nas and Damian Marley’s first event, a panel discussion, also titled Distant Relatives, at the Grosvenor Auditorium in Washington D.C.  The event, sponsored by VTech, was moderated by Sway, of Wake up Show and MTV News fame, and included the likes of such living legends as  Kool Herc, Rakim, Big Youth, and Kool DJ Red Alert (who just happens to follow our blog on twitter), among others.

Peep the full two hour discussion after the jump.