One of the greatest rappers ever still deserves the title, even over twenty years after his career shook the world. Nas recently opened up about how rappers his age don’t inspire him anymore when it comes to new material. Moreover, he spoke candidly on the subject while on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert on Wednesday (February 22). When Colbert asked him which artists keep the New York MC competitive, he had a very interesting answer. Since his generation of rappers don’t release music often, he expressed that he has to match the newer generation instead.
“I’m really trying to figure out what my next move is, and I feel like a lot of Hip Hop artists my age are not putting out a lot of material, so I can’t look to them as reference,” Nas remarked. “They kind of slowed down — for whatever reasons, I understand it’s a tough thing — but I got bit by the bug, man.” Of course, that bug resulted in four excellent collaborative albums with Hit-Boy (with a fifth on the way). In fact, the albums made such a mark that they nabbed the Mass Appeal mogul with his first-ever Grammy.
Nas Speaks On Rappers His Age
“I collaborated with this cat Hit-Boy who’s like the best, and he’s produced all of those albums — King’s Disease 1, 2, 3. [Don’t forget Magic!] We’re kind of inspiring ourselves at this point. It’s really interesting.” When asked what he sees in the producer that he doesn’t see in himself, he responded cheekily with “Youth.” Still, their relationship is rooted more deeply than that generational divide, as Nas described them as a “perfect match.”
While their latest effort King’s Disease III didn’t have any features, Nas said that wasn’t the plan in an Apple Music interview. “Honestly, it was once we got deeper into the album because I definitely was thinking and conceptualizing on who could be a part of it,” he expressed. “I even pulled up some features that I had in my computer from different artists and we tried stuff, but nothing really connected on a level of what we was doing solo. This is, I believe, Nas’ first album ever with no features so that’s an ill thing in itself.” As always, come back to HNHH for the latest news on Nas and the greatness he’ll bring us next.