Artistic Integrity: Hopper v. Nas

Aight, I'm back with another post for Artistic Integrity, now if you don't know about this segment just check the last post as it was inspired by that Wale track.

Edward Hopper - Nighthawks (1942)

What is the first thing you realize about this painting? For me, it was the damn isolation of all of the figures, especially the center figure that is going to be the focus of my post. Even though there is a couple, they seem disinterested and distant at the time. Hopper's painting shows that even though there can be a lot of people in the city (inspired by Manhattan), there is still loneliness.

Nas - Drunk By Myself

I got to say one of my favorite CDs ever is the The Lost Tapes by Nas, so when I saw this painting I immediately thought about that Nas track because it is essentially about depression and solitude. The dude in the middle of the painting is by his lonesome and it is almost assumed that he is drinking away the pain. Now of course I could have put that classic Mobb Deep and Q-Tip track, but I remembered these Nas lyrics (3rd Verse/ 2:41) and it just fit, I can picture the dude just saying these lyrics in his head:

"The reason that I want to be alone
Tired of all the things that went wrong
That would have went right if I would have did it on my own
Take another swigg
The more I drink, the more I think bad thoughts
Fake friends who hung around who wanna bring you down
Not knowing who to trust, rumors about niggas coming through
Supposedly to shoot at us, not knowing what was true
Or what to believe, that's why I'm on the low lately
Choosing a Henny bottle over a friend..."

Aight, so there it is, Hopper and Nas seem to catch the same vibe on this painting and track. If you guys see this painting and another song comes to mind, post up ya comments and lyrics. Let me know what ya think.