Nas har hållit en förhållandevis låg profil sedan samarbetet med Kanye West för albumet “Nasir”, från 2018. Nu bekräftas Queensbridge-ikonen vara redo med nytt album, i samarbete med Hit-Boy. Kalifornien-baserade producenten har sedan tidigare kopplingar till Kanyes G.O.O.D Music, och har stått bakom “N*ggas In Paris” av Jay-Z och Kanye West (Watch The Throne), bland en lång rad samarbeten i diskografin.
På det nya albumet gästar Foxy Brown, AZ, Cormega (The Firm), The-Dream, Big Sean, Lil Durk, A$AP Ferg, Fivio Foreign, Don Toliver med flera. I en intervju med Highsnobiety förklarar Nas att han fortfarande har samma ambition och tänk som vid tiden för debutklassikern “Illmatic”, att hans musik är en förlängning av hans pappas musikskapande inom jazz.
“Yeah, in a way. It’s all the same. It sounds different, but it’s all the same. It’s the American Dream, getting through the struggle, wanting to see your parents live a better life than they’re living. You want to give back to your parents, you want to represent your neighborhood, and represent yourself. That is still the thing today.”
Nas kommenterar vidare 2020 och årets som präglats av pandemin:
“I had a lot of plans [this year]. And it just shows you that the Most High is the best planner. We might think we have some plans, but you realize we are not in control. You realize we’re living in times that other people lived, like the Bubonic Plague — those things wasn’t story books, those things were reality and we are experiencing our own version of it. I realize there’s a lot of people that you would think have answers, don’t, and our knowledge can only go so far. This is the best we are as human beings. I think we can be better, but you realize that there’s something higher because we have no answers. It’s the definite evidence that something higher exists.”
Foto: Hennessy / Mass Appeal Records / Universal Music Group
