Tony Yayo explained to VladTV what it was like touring with Nas for the Nastradamus promo tour, back in 1999. This was Yayo’s first tour and was there with 50 Cent. He thought that the tour was going to have nothing but partying with women, drugs, and alcohol. While there was plenty of that around thanks to Jungle, Nas was not too interested in it. This was six years into Nas’s career. All of the excitement of tours must have run off of him by then
Instead, Nas was more interested in reading. He really wasn’t smoking that much weed, but instead spent most of the downtime with his nose in a book. Yayo figures that his reading is what made him so good with lyrics. Nine years ago, Nas made an AMA on Reddit and was asked what his favorite book was. The answer was Richard Pryor’s autobiography, Pryor Convictions. He also gave a couple of more suggestions, with Tuesdays with Morrie by Mitch Albom and Rick James’s memoirs. He appears to have an affinity towards autobiographical books that talk about people’s rough lives, especially if it involves drug abuse. He is not just reading whatever is new and popular, but also going back to try to find new angles for his lyrics.
Nas Loves Books
50 Cent also talked to MTV previously about what Nas was like during this tour. It was the first time that somebody had ever done something for him without wanting something in return. Nas brought 50 along just to hang out on the tour bus. Later, they had a falling out when 50 mocked Nas in 2005 during his song “Piggy Back” for getting a tattoo of his now ex-wife, Kellis.
However, they had since squashed the beef. Last year, 50 even had this to say. “I love Nas. He’s really the one. He is the guy, the lyrical — we was figuring out how to do it.” In a recent interview with Billboard, 50 revealed that he was going to be working with Nas for the upcoming King’s Disease 4 LP. However, we do not know much more about that at this point in time.