Wu-Tang Clan add free NYC show; Nas & 50 Cent collab for first time in 20+ years

Wu-Tang Clan will play a Queens for the celebration of hip hop’s 50th anniversary this summer. It happens on Thursday, August 10 at Knockdown Center, and it’s part of “For the Love,” SiriusXM and Pandora’s celebration of the anniversary. Free RSVP is open to SiriusXM subscribers and Pandora listeners 21+, and attendance is first come, first served for those who have RSVPed. More details on this show below.

Wu-Tang also play the big “Hip-Hop Forever” show at Madison Square Garden on September 15, which is with Mary J. Blige, EPMD, Tyrese, Sean Paul, and special guests Mariah Carey and Maxwell. After that, they head out on a new leg of their NY State of Mind Tour with Nas and De La Soul, including an NYC show on September 27 at Barclays Center.

Nas released a new album, Magic 2, this past Friday (7/21). It’s the sequel to 2021’s Magic, and the fifth consecutive Nas album produced by Hit-Boy in the past three years, also including the Kings Disease trilogy. Stream it below.

Magic 2 includes 50 Cent collaboration “Office Hours,” which marks the first time the two New York rappers have appeared on a track together since 50’s 2002 mixtape Guess Who’s Back?. 50 talked about the collab in an interview with XXL:

Nas, when I first interacted with him, he was like, ‘Yo, who’s that?’. ‘Cause the ‘How to Rob’ record got his attention. He’s like, ‘Yo, that’s like when I first came out. That energy is like raw.’ And he just wanted to see who I was. Just wanted me to be around and s**t like that. Then, he let me come on tour with him and he didn’t have to do that.

He was ahead of us. What he had, and I was looking at it going, ‘You gotta be careful’ because he was smarter than the music he was releasing. He was smarter than things he was saying on the records because what he said on the records matched how things felt in the environment not who he was actually [in his head]. We’d be on the tour bus, and he’d be reading books and stuff.

Read more at XXL.

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MORE DETAILS ON WU-TANG CLAN @ KNOCKDOWN CENTER

Before Wu-Tang’s set, Knockdown Center will host a “Community Giveback” supporting the Boys & Girls Club of Metro Queens, hosted by Mina SayWhat, Torae, Coach PR, D-Stroy, Bugsy, DJ Superstar Jay, DJ Wallah, and DJ Taj, and featuring breakdancing performances and double-dutch, live, interactive broadcasts of SiriusXM Hip-Hop Nation’s Gray Rizzy and The Heat’s DJ Steel, and more.

In addition to that event, SiriusXM’s “For The Love: 50 Years of Hip-Hop” programming includes a Hip Hop Top 500 countdown, the Queens of Hip Hop station on channel 104 from August 22-31, Rock the Bells Radio starting on August 10, a Mobb Deep Retrospective with Havoc airing on Channel 45 August 5-9, and Respect The DJ with DJ Tony Touch, D-Sory, DJ Enuff, and Crazy Legs on August 19 on Channel 45.

Pandora has an exclusive special, Leave Your Legacy: 50 Years of Hip Hop, and stations including Hip Hop Forever, Top Shelf Rap & R&B, VIP Rap, 90’s Hip Hop, and 2000s Hip Hop will also be celebrating the anniversary.