The 'Blood Diamond' song

Rapper Nas gave a shout-out to Blood Diamond and announced he has a song on the soundtrack of the forthcoming Leo DiCaprio film.

As reported by Eurweb, he was being interviewed about his upcoming album "Hip Hop Is Dead" by DJ Funkmaster Flex on New York's Hot 97 when he brought up the film.

"There's a movie coming out y'all called 'Blood Diamond'... I did some music on there, got involved, starring Leonardo DiCaprio," Nas told Flex. "I'm not in it, but I just felt like I'd shout them out. They treated me real nice. I did a song for them about the diamond industry. I think it's going to shake up some stuff out there with the whole way it's happening."

Choice lyrics from the song "Blood Diamonds" include:

"Feeling half-ashamed
As I rap with my platinum chain
When you shop for a gift for me, you think about the misery?
The same way we made apartheid history
We can do the same thing to the conflict ice
But everybody wanna shine, right?"

And the chorus:

"Everybody wants heaven but nobody wants dead
Everybody wants diamonds without the bloodshed
Everybody wants heaven but nobody wants dead
Everybody wants diamonds without the bloodshed
They want the shine on 'em"

I'm no critic, but I'm guessing retailers won't be using the song as background music for holiday shoppers.

When Flex pointed out how Nas likes his bling, the rapper responded:

"I like these shiny things, man. And sometimes I wear them and I think about it like, 'Yo, man. These belong to me. I'm buying it back. You know what I'm saying? I'm trying to get involved.'"

To hear the shout-out (a little more than halfway through the clip) Download smartenupnas.com prt 4.mp3. To listen to Nas' contribution to the Blood Diamond soundtrack: Download nas_blood_diamondnr.mp3.

Speaking of shout-outs, Warner Bros. has made the production notes for Blood Diamond available to the media. Buried on page 22 is an "epilogue" that mentions the Kimberley Process. Director Ed Zwick offers this quick take:

"Even now, it's a very difficult circumstance to try to control. We are not telling people to stop buying diamonds, but we need consumers to insist on seeing the warranty of the diamonds they buy. The Kimberley Process came about because of heightened public awareness. If this movie succeeds in increasing that awareness, it will hopefully strengthen a process that needs [Zwick's emphasis] to be greatly strengthened."