Nas and 21 Savage come together on wax in lieu of the latter’s controversy over relevance in hip hop. Produced by Hit-Boy.
Nas Feat. Freddie Gibbs & Cordae – “Life Is Like A Dice Game”
With the assisted help of Hit-Boy, Nas brings back a classic freestyle from his Illmatic sessions and adds on Freddie Gibbs and the DMV’s own Cordae for a finished product. Check it out below.
Curren$y – The Ultimate High Freestyle
Curren$y spits some dope bars over Nature and Nas’ track ‘The Ultimate High’.
Pimp C Feat. Juicy J & Nas – Friends
Produced by Juicy J. Long Live The Pimp drops December 4th.
Rick Ross Reveals ‘Black Market’ Tracklisting, Drops Nas-Assisted ‘One Of Us’
Black Market drops December 4th. Song courtesy of Funk Flex.
Jeezy Feat. Nas – God (Remix)
Nas jumps on Jeezy’s ‘God’, of which the originally can be found on the new album Church In These Streets.
Dave East Feat. Nas – Forbes List
This is dope. Dave East gets Mass Appeal boss Nas on the new track ‘Forbes List’, which is taken from his upcoming mixtape Hate Me Now.
Scarface Feat. Nas, Rick Ross & Z-Ro – Do What I Do
Scarface just let go of a heater — the Nas, Rick Ross and Z-Ro-assisted ‘Do What I Do’ — before Deeply Rooted drops Friday.
Fabolous – Black Girl Lost Freestyle
Fabolous destroys Nas’ ‘Black Girl Lost’ for his latest Friday Night Freestyle.
Nas Feat. AZ – The Season (Remix)
Pete Rock – Time is Illmatic Mix
To celebrate the release of the NaS documentary Time Is Illmatic. Pete Rock did a mix of some classics from the famed MC. Pete said’
Nas Performs ‘Hate Me Now’ At Knicks Scrimmage (Video)
During the New York Knicks scrimmage at Madison Square Garden, Nas provided the music (along with Swizz Beatz) for the fans; above, he performs his hit ‘Hate Me Now’.
Nas Announces Illmatic XX Tour Dates
Thank God for Hip-Hop.
Nas — who has already been celebrating the release of Illmatic XX — will continue to honor the historic album’s 20th anniversary by hitting the road for various dates throughout the month of October. In addition, most of those dates will also be rewarded with a screening of the documentary Nas: Time is Illmatic. Hell yes.
You can check out the dates below; Time is Illmatic officially debuts October 1st and Tribeca, followed by an iTunes release two days later.
Nas: Time Is Illmatic Tour Dates:
10/02 – Rochester, NY @ Main Street Armony *
10/03- Albany, NY @ Palace Theatre
10/04 – Washington D.C. @ Lincoln Theatre (Matinee)
10/05 – Glenside, PA @ Keswick Theatre
10/08 – Toronto, ON @ Queen Elizabeth Theatre
10/09 – Detroit, MI @ The Fillmore Detroit
10/10 – Hammond, IN @ Horseshoe
10/11 – Lincoln, NE @ Bourbon Theatre *
10/12 – Denver, CO @ Paramount Theatre
10/15 – Seattle, WA @ Moore Theatre
10/16 – Vancouver, BC @ Vogue Theatre
10/17 – Las Vegas, NV @ The Cosmopolitan of Las Vegas *
10/18 – Los Angeles, CA @ Orpheum Theatre
10/19 – Oakland, CA @ Fox Theater
* = No film screening of Nas: Time is Illmatic
Wiz Khalifa Feat. Rick Ross, ScHoolboy Q & Nas – We Dem Boyz (Remix)
Late pass, but Wiz Khalifa finally let go of his mega-remix to ‘We Dem Boyz’ featuring Rick Ross, ScHoolboy Q and the God Son himself, who spoke on the collaboration with REVOLT TV while in New Orleans for the Essence Jazz Festival (below).
Produced by RMBjustize & Sledgren.
Hit-Boy Previews Song ‘White Jesus’ With Nas And Frank Ocean
A track entitled “White Jesus” with Frank Ocean was supposed to featured on Nas’ studio album Life Is Good, but unfortunately masters files was lost. Hit-Boy reveals vis his instagram that he found the masters to the song .No update on whether or not this track will be released . I really hope this song gets released very soon.
Mariah Carey ft. Nas – Dedicated
Mariah Carey next single hits the internet with Nas over Hit-Boy production off her upcoming album Me I Am Mariah: The Elusive Chanteuse which hit stores on May 27th.
Nas To Release ‘Lost Tapes 2’, Pimp C Album On Mass Appeal Records
We previously reported on Nas’ expansion into music record territory with Mass Appeal Records…now we know the first releases that we can expect from the label. Spotted on Billboard:
First among Mass Appeal Records releases, arriving late this summer, will be an annual compilation album featuring friends of the brand like Future, Pusha T, Mac Miller, A$AP Mob and Nas himself performing a cover of the 1994 Gang Starr single that gave the company its name. Also on deck is “Lost Tapes 2,” a collection of unreleased Nas music, and a posthumous album from Pimp C that will pair the Houston icon and UGK member with modern production titans like Juicy J, Mike Will Made It and DJ Mustard.
Sony’s RED is Mass Appeal’s distributor, reuniting Nas with the parent company that released “Illmatic” in 1994. RED won the rights to the label in a bidding war with Caroline and the Alternative Distribution Alliance, putting up an advance in the low seven figures for a multi-year agreement.
Fun fact: apparently, the record label (which also houses new artist Boldy James) was sort-of birthed from Decon Records’s artist division (Mass Appeal’s co-founder Peter Bittenbender also co-founded Decon). You can check out more on that here.
PICS: Nas Celebrates New Sneaker Store Opening In Las Vegas
Nas (along with his brother Jungle and more) recently celebrated the grand opening of his new sneaker store, titled 12AM:RUN, in Sin City. You can check out both pics from the opening, as well as a few snapshots of the actual store, above. When the website officially launches, you’ll be able to enjoy that here.
Will you head to Vegas to check it out?
Timbaland, Swizz Beatz & No I.D. To Work On Nas’ New Album
Nas sat down with NPR during the 20 anniversary celebration of his debut album Illmatic. During the interview, he says that he has begun work on his next album with Swizz Beatz & No I.D. Nas also added that he hopes to finish the album with Timbaland.
“I started working with, I want to say a year and a half ago. I think it was the same year I dropped my last album, Life is Good. I started with Tim and it felt really powerful; it felt like it was really powerful. And I stepped back from it. Tim’s like, “What are you doing?” and I’m like, “I just need a minute to like — I just need a minute to take it all in, just live a little and enjoy day-by-day stuff and daily stuff I’m doing.” It’s just — I didn’t want to go back in the studio that quick. I felt like I needed to be inspired.”
‘I talked to Swizz, and we went through joints. And No I.D. and Timbaland, you know. This the only interview I’ma talk about it. Cause I know once this comes out, people might ask me about the record and, man, I just want to finish it and get it done.”
Joey BADA$$ Blasts XXL Over JAY Z, Nas & Big L Reference
XXL recently posted a write-up interview (Joey Bada$$ Wants To Channel The Energy Of Nas, Jay-Z And Big L On New Album) where they spoke to the Brooklyn emcee about recording his upcoming album B4.DA.$$ (Before The Money). Soon after, BADA$$ took to Twitter to express their distaste for the header, claiming that he doesn’t want to channel anybody’s energy.
You can see those tweets above; XXL has since changed the title.
Nas Brings Out Damian Marley & Lauryn Hill At Coachella
Another big set from the second weekend at Coachella: instead of JAY Z and Diddy, Nas brought out Damian Marley and Lauryn Hill to perform their respective collaborations. I do understand now why they run the same acts at this festival for two weekends. Check out more below.
Nas Contributes To Minority Scholarship Funding For NYC Tech School
Spotted on Beta Beat:
Tech has a serious diversity problem — so General Assembly (GA), the New York City private vocational school for programming and engineering, is now opening an “Opportunity Fund” to give scholarships to women, veterans, African-Americans and Latinos.
The first contributors to the fund are Google, Microsoft, Hirepurpose and Nas.
Yes, rapper and recording artist Nas, the man who brought us “Illmatic.” The partnership with Nas began when he met GA cofounder Matt Brimer at SXSW, but Nas isn’t the only media figure to approach GA about these kinds of programs.
Each of the donors is taking on a target demographic. Google will provide scholarship money for women, Hirepurpose and Microsoft will fund veterans and Nas’s QueensBridge Venture Partners will sponsor African-Americans and Latinos.
“This is the start of what hopefully will be a contribution to what will be a more diverse and accessible community worldwide,” GA CEO Jake Schwartz told Betabeat in a phone interview.
You can read much more on the story here.