50 Cent had a major surprise up his sleeve during his show in Los Angeles this week as he brought out Nas as a special guest.
The G-Unit rapper’s Final Lap Tour took over the Crypto.com Arena on Wednesday night (August 30), where he welcomed Escobar on stage to perform “Hate Me Now” and “Made You Look.”
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Before departing the stage, Nas saluted 50 Cent for “changing the whole rap game” with his blockbuster 2003 debut album Get Rich or Die Tryin’.
“When this man dropped, the whole rap game changed,” he told the crowd. “Queens in the building, bruh. Shout out to Tony Yayo and Uncle Murda — my brothers. I love you, man.
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50 Cent recently reunited with Nas on “Office Hours” from the Queensbridge lyricist’s Magic 2 album, which dropped in July.
It was their first collaboration in over 20 years. They previously teamed up on “Too Hot” and “Who U Rep With” from 50’s Guess Who’s Back? mixtape.
During a recent interview with XXL, 50 Cent reflected on touring with Nas early in his career, prior to the breakout success of Get Rich or Die Tryin.’
“Nas, when I first interacted with him, he was like, ‘Yo, who’s that?’” Fif remembered. “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.’
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“And he just wanted to see who I was. Just wanted me to be around and shit like that. Then, he let me come on tour with him and he didn’t have to do that.”
He added: “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.”
In 2020, Nas shared his own memories of 50 “wildin’ out” during that tour, while also discussing their onstage reunion at the 2014 Hot 97 Summer Jam.
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“That was good. I think me and 50, we haven’t done a Summer Jam in a while,” he told Amazon Music. “Him longer than me, probably. It was good because it was Queens on the stage. Queens, New York.
“My man used to hang with me all the time. I mean, studio vibes. We went on tours together. Me and Fif, we go super back. I remember 50 wildin’ out. Wildin’ out on the tours, like, you know, gettin’ into drama in different states and everything.
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“I’m like, ‘Is this kid gonna make it?’ I’m like, he’s ready to get at anything moving. I’m like, ‘You do know you’re on stage, you got opportunity? You got incredible talent, my dude.’ I just seen it in him. That fire. I always saw his talent and respected his talent.”
