Nas is in full press mode following the release of his 12th studio album King’s Disease. While speaking to The Breakfast Club on Tuesday (August 26), the Illmatic mastermind opened up about the Kanye West-produced project NASIR, which he dropped in 2018.
The album received mostly mixed reviews and was criticized for what felt like a Kanye “rush job.” At the time, Ye was juggling multiple albums, including Teyana Taylor’s K.T.S.E., Pusha T’s DAYTONA and Kids See Ghosts.
After Charlamagne Tha God asks Nas what went wrong with the project, he replies, “I don’t know what went wrong, but I would say I did want to work more with him. I did spend some time there with him, but I was working on ideas. He would give me a few loops and I would write to them, but they wasn’t finished.
“[Kanye] was working on a lot. He had Cudi, Teyana Taylor, he had his album. I was the only one coming in starting fresh. So I had less time with him. We really did that album the week it was supposed to come out.
He adds, “I wanted to work with him a lot more than what we did.”
In a recent episode of The Joe Budden Podcast, the show’s namesake admitted he was skeptical of King’s Disease because of NASIR. He ultimately issued an apology for judging the project’s quality based on the lead single “Ultra Black.”
“I’m just saying I didn’t see where some of the features were about to take me because I have been thrown off from that Kanye project,” Budden said. “I’m gonna be honest here. A lot of people out there had been asking and inquiring, ‘Hey, is there Nas hate up there?’
“No, there’s not Nas hate, but he’s such a great that when it’s not great, you try to just avoid it, not discuss it, not speak about him in his proper place. Not only did Nas deliver, but Hit-Boy did an amazing job. Every one of these features killed.”
Joe Budden Blames Nas' Kanye West Album For Initial 'King's Disease' Skepticism
As for King’s Disease, the album is receiving plenty of positive feedback. Fans were most surprised to discover a Firm reunion on the track “Full Circle.” The former supergroup was comprised of Nas, Foxy Brown, Cormega (who replaced Nature) and AZ. It featured production from Steve Stoute, the production team Trackmasters and Dr. Dre who actually made a cameo appearance on the song.
While Nas was working on the project, producer Hit-Boy said he’d be willing to reach out to AZ to make something happen. He told The Breakfast Club that’s when he knew something special was in the works.
“I was like wow, I knew he was really invested, serious about what we were working on when he mentioned A,” Nas says. “And AZ was working on his new stuff too so it was perfect. And then G-Code was like, why don’t you call Cormega and Foxy Brown? And lightbulbs was going off, like let’s get at it. They was with it, and then it happened. [Dre] came at the end and really made it full circle.”
Listen to it below.
Goes to show what a difference a producer can make, Hit Boy is one that clearly dedicates himself to a project and the result speaks for itself, whereas Kanye had the same job with even more resources available to him but treated it like it was an unwanted assignment on his list of shit to do and left it until the last minute (literally) to complete. Hopefully Nas and others have learned their lesson and won’t trust Kanye to produce their albums in future. On the other side, hopefully this project will take Hit Boy to the next level. Dope producer and has been for years. Great album that exceeds expectations thanks to the people that dedicated themselves to it.
well said. i completely agree. dat hitboy production got Nas soundin fresh and inspired. dope album
Kanye Produced Daytona in that same session so stop with the hate lol.
Daytona was ass
thanks for calling me Nas, really appreciate it 🙁
No one asks wheres Nature???
idk maybe he still bitter bout how shii went down ova the years. id love to hear him wit em but it is what it is.
Kanye and his arrogance. SMH
Nas sounds great on the mic and so does the firm. Album Trash doe 4 realz
1 mans trash another mans treasure.. Peace King
Love the Firm reunion track but Foxy Brown’s verse was trash and I see Cormega replaced Nature. Could a new album happen? Who knows but it would be great if Dr Dre was involved!
Well originally Nature replaced Cormega, so..
Wow foh foxy’s was fireee, her voice is fucked up but the lyrics were crazy maybe you should listen again
Cormega originally in the firm before nature
Nature was not an original member, him just like Nore would feature based on Queensbridge camaraderie
Shout out to The Breakfast Club for being persistent in making the interview happen and showing the King love. It’s been a long time coming for a lot of us. We’ve been waiting on Nas to pop in. It’s also great to see Nas and Envy hold it down together for Queens. I liked the points Charlamagne raised and the AZ story by Angela Yee was classic.
I swear if anybody else other than Kanye did his last album, it would’ve been liked more. King’s Disease is better, but not by that much…
Can’t tap dance around this word…. Album is classic!!! Esco went to his bag. Great storytelling, knowledge and production and features was on par.
Nature replaced Cormega
I can’t remember a single Nature verse from the Firm album, just that he had the weakest verse on that NORE song with Big Pun and Cam’ron.
5 minutes to flush was a dope concept cut yo….the firm album was half great half mediocre at best….anways, and nature killed it on banned from tv…thru rain or snow, sleet or hail, i kick street tales, choking niggas like im sprewell…that opening was sick
3 songs off Nasir are dope as fuck though. That’s half the album lol
Nas got at MEGA! Nice to see em getting together
I don’t see anything wrong with NASIR. People are saying its trash coz it was produced by Kanye but if it wasn’t I bet they will consider it a great album
That boy AZ is something special! He’s almost the 2nd coming. I go back and forth and I will put AZ in my top 5 ever. Pac, Big, AZ, Nas, Ice Cube…
Project not bad. Nas has two more upcomjng project which will be better
“Ultra Black” deserves a #1 spot on billboard.
The album is absolute ? ? ?. That’s why Nas is the first on my top 5
That album Nas did with Kanye was garbage!! Nas just needs to go with the heavy hitters that he had success with from the jump. Go get Pete Rock, Premo, Q-Tip, LES, & throw in 9th Wonder,Diamond D & Buckwild for the real headz!!!
I only like 4 songs off his new shit!!!
confirmed….Kanye ruined NASIR.
that firm album…has always been half dope half borderline trash to me…executive decision, desparados, throw yo gunz, phone tap, 5 minutes to flush, firm fiasco, firm biz remix…the other half was mehhh….AZ was definitely Nas’ equal on the album and all of their duets….mega’s gotta much better and deeper throughout the years too…would be dope to see the trio or at least nas/az doing an album even though its long overdue
Nas Fell Off. SMFH