Nas calls Hit-Boy his “Quincy Jones”, talks potential third album together: “The idea has to be exciting in the first place”
In a new interview with the Apple Music 1 station Rap Life Radio, Nas spoke to the possibility of he and collaborator Hit-Boy teaming up for a third album, saying he’d be down if “the idea [was] exciting in the first place”.
Earlier this month, Nas released his 13th studio album, ‘King’s Disease II’. It marked his second full-length collab with Hit-Boy following the first ‘King’s Disease’ record last August, and scored a five-star review from NME which called it “a fresh burst of creativity”.
Hit-Boy produced and co-wrote every track on both records, and also lent his vocal talents to the tracks ‘Ultra Black’ (on ‘King’s Disease’) and ‘Composure’ (on ‘King’s Disease II’).
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In his interview with Rap Life Radio’s Ebro Darden, Nas praised Hit-Boy for his skills as a producer and collaborator, noting the pair’s infallible chemistry as artists.
“A lot of times I walk in the studio and his headphones is on, he’s like, ‘Yo, check this out.’ Something he’s already working on. And as soon as I hear it, it’s like, that’s the one. He’s like my Quincy [Jones], you know what I mean? He has that,” he said.
Nas also noted that he and Hit-Boy approached ‘King’s Disease II’ with a desire to make it stand out from its predecessor, saying the record “had to be totally different from part one, just for myself, for Hit-Boy and for our listeners, to see that you can evolve and you can go into different directions, as you should as an artist – you should do things that take you up a notch”.
Check out the full interview below:
On the topic of a potential ‘King’s Disease III’, Nas said that he and Hit-Boy currently have no plans for such a project, but he would consider another team-up if the right idea was pitched.
“I feel like the next thing I do, if I was to work with Hit-Boy on the next thing I do, I think that we might do something that is going to be magical,” he said. “I think what we have is magic. And I think the next thing we do would have to be the next page. And that, to me, excites me, that possibility.
“Right now we’re chilling. And I think we learned so much the first album, we was just learning each other. In the middle of it we said, ‘We got to do another one. We got to finish this one first, but we’re going to have to do another one.’ We knew. I think if we do another one, I’m excited about that idea, but you know, we’re celebrating this one now.”
Earlier this week, Nas linked up with Belly and The Weeknd for a guest spot on the track ‘Die For It’, which appears on Belly’s new album ‘See You Next Wednesday’. It followed earlier collabs with the likes of Eminem (for ‘EPMD 2’) and DJ Khalid (for ‘Sorry Not Sorry’, also featuring Jay-Z).
In March, Nas won his first Grammy Award, taking home the title for Best Rap Album at the hand of ‘King’s Disease’. Throughout the years, he’d racked up a total of 14 nominations. He also released a deluxe edition of his second album, ‘It Was Written’, in celebration of its 25th anniversary back in July.