Do you want to hear a story? It involves a boy who was born in the deepest, darkest jungles of Africa. The boy, a South African named Jabulani Tsambo, would rise to become one of the biggest rappers on the continent – and some would say one of the best. (Bear with us; this is going somewhere).

In 2009, Jabulani, who rapped under the name Hip-Hop Pantsula (he was more informally referred to as HHP or just plain Jabba) was putting together his seventh album Dumela. He wanted a big international collaboration on it, and he’d been a Nas fan since the days of Illmatic. So Jabba went to the States, found Nas and paid him nearly $10,000 for a hot sixteen. The resulting track, a heater called ‘Keledimo’, took pride of place on the new Jabba album.

At the same time, Nas was in studio working with his good buddy Damien Marley to put together a project called Distant Relatives. The album, which featured people like K’Naan, Lil Wayne, Joss Stone and Stephen Marley, came out in May this year. On it was a track called ‘Leaders‘ – a track which featured the same verse that Nas had already sold to HHP.

Jabba’s paid-for exclusive had become an also-ran.

Rappers shank each other all the time with verses – it’s not acceptable, but it’s not unheard of either. But what’s galling is that Nas and Damien are full of concern for Africa; the entire album seems to be themed around the power and potential that the continent has, and the love the two principal artists have for it. This seems a little hard to swallow when, behind the scenes, Nas is selling old verses to African MCs. And unfortunately, that’s Distant Relatives as a whole: rock-solid production and excellent performances wrapped around a core that, when tapped, rings very hollow indeed.

Of course, if you don’t give a fig about this sort of thing, then you’ll love Distant Relatives. Because what is annoying is that it is a genuinely good album, bursting with great moments like the ominous ‘Tribes At War’ and the bouncy ‘Count Your Blessings‘.

It’s the kind of project that clearly has a lot of time and love invested in it, and it’s being quite rightly proclaimed by all and sundry as one of the better albums you’ll hear this year.

But when Joss Stone sings about her generation making a change, over some saccharine raps from Nas and Weezy, it’s tough not to cringe. Which generation would that be, Nas? Because so far, when it comes to Africa you’re doing a pretty piss-poor job.

Words Rob Boffard