Jay-Z, Nas collab for first time in years on new DJ Khaled song
After not collaborating in years, the two hip hop veterans have joined forces for a track from DJ Khaled’s much-anticipated album.
DJ Khaled’s new album, Khaled, Khaled, is set to premiere this Friday, April 30th. The eponymous album features prominent artists in today’s hip hop industry and two of the illest emcees to lay blueprints for the culture; Jay-Z and Nas.
On Wednesday, Khaled posted a preview of the music video for “Sorry Not Sorry” on his social media accounts, which features Jay-Z and Nas and was directed by Hype Williams. So far, the two rappers have only collaborated three other times: Nas’ 2005 track “Black Republicans”, Jay-Z’s song “Success” from the soundtrack for the 2007 film American Gangster, and Ludacris’ “I Do it for Hip Hop”, New Music Express reports.
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“God blessed my album. My family blessed my album. Jay-Z blessed my album. Nas blessed my album…,” wrote Khaled. “We making history! They said it was impossible so God made it possible”.
The same day, Khaled posted the album’s official track list which includes features from Bryson Tiller, Buju Banton, Drake, Lil Wayne, Megan Thee Stallion, and Roddy Rich, to name just a few. The entire album includes features from over 25 artists.
In addition to the Khaled-led collaboration between Nas and Jay-Z, a Tidal playlist that Jay-Z released in honor of Nas is also catching the attention of hip hop heads. The “Curated By The God Hov: NaS” playlist includes widely considered classics from Nas’ catalog, pulling from albums like The Illmatic (1994), It Was Written (1996), Nasir (2018), which was produced by Kanye West, and the most recent, King’s Disease, released in 2020.
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In a January episode of Rick Rubin’s Broken Record podcast, Nas, whose government name is Nasir Jones, spoke about the rivalry between the two hip hop veterans, with Jay-Z coming from Brooklyn’s Marcy Projects and Nas representing Queensbridge. Their feud started in the 1990s and spilled into the 2000s.
“The art of emceeing was right there on full display. It was like, ‘This rap thing is real. A battle could really happen,’ you know, so I was honored to have that part of my life happen because that’s how I saw the greats do it coming up,” according to Revolt.
“It’s about the art of emceeing,” Nas explained in the interview. “I think hip hop will always be around because of how competitive it is.”
Khaled, Khaled, will be released on all music streaming services on Friday, April 30th.
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