The late Prince is one of the few artists who passed on the chance to collaborate with Nas, something the Queensbridge Hip Hop legend admitted during a recent Drink Champs interview. Apparently, Prince would only work with artists who owned their masters — and Nas did not.
“I sought him, because he came to my I Am… release party,” Nas says at the 48:55-minute mark. “I pulled a N.O.R.E. move, I said, ‘Yo, look man, let’s do this. Let’s do this song.’ And he was like, ‘Do you own your masters?’
“But he blew my shit, because I was like, ‘I don’t. And I’m far from it, ’cause I owe this label like four, five albums.’ So I was like, ‘Damn.'”
Nas didn’t walk away completely empty handed. He says Prince taught him something that night.
“He dropped a jewel, he kind of helped me see the future and he was like, ‘When you own your masters, give me a ring,'” he explains. “But we kicked it a few times. We got cool, he was seriously a very cool dude to me. He invited me onstage to perform.
“I think everybody wanted to work with him, so the pressure that he had from everybody… He turned Michael Jackson down! The pressure he had from people who wanted to work with him was crazy.”
N.O.R.E., DJ EFN and Nas also got into Lost Tapes 2, the making of the 1994 classic Illmatic and the potential for a Lost Tapes 3 and 4.
According to a press release, REVOLT, TIDAL and Mass Appeal will present exclusive Drink Champs content across all of their platforms, beginning with podcast episodes premiering August 13 exclusively on TIDAL.
Until then, watch the full Nas interview above.
prince knows nas beat choice is horrendous and he can’t be trusted with vocals, he’ll slap’em on a sub par beat haha
So fuckin true lmaoooo Worst ear for beats EVER next to The Lox
Yup. Nas is too predictable. If he wants an underground hit, all he really needs is truly RAW beats, not the polished style he’s had for decades now. Don’t get me wrong, he’s talented, but I strongly disagree with the whole top 5 stuff. Top 5 artists need a few classics, not one or two.
A few classics? So I guess Biggie and Pac ain’t top 5 either huh
Tupac is top 5, Nas is too. BIG isn’t. Not enough work.
Nas, Jay, Big, Pac – all to 5 and all got classics… Shit Big is #1 in my books!
Damn right
I think by now you can say that Nas surpass 2 Pac because he died in 1996 and there hasn’t been too many posthumous albums from 2 Pac Shakur.
You right i love biggie but i been saying for 20 years he didn’t do enough to compare to pac
…
Top 5 LL, Jay, Rakim, Big, Pac! Shout out to Big L!
… Nas does have a few classics.
You sound crazy, so Nas has one classic?? What year were u born? Lol his first three albums are classic along with stillmatic and hip hop is dead.. yea I said it.
Oh well, Nas is one of the richest rappers our there so fuck it. Shows you how far financial litteracy and investment knowledge can take you, something for yall casuals in here to learn. Shout out to Chamillionaire too!
Nas, Biggie, Pac in Top 5? Fuck outta here you jokes of human beings lol
Big Daddy Kane, Kool G Rap, Masta Ace, Rakim and Wise Intelligent…thats more like top 5….
Your 60 year old idols got Pac, Nas and Big in their top 5!
Those rappers don’t need to be named. and kool g rap are never mentioned because he’s above your list.
Really ???…. master ace and wise don’t even make top 100 bruh…smh
Alright old nicca. No need to make ur hairs even grayer
“He blew my shit” …… PAUSE
You know who does own his masters though? King HOV! That’s why Prince joined the TIDAL team before he passed away. He only hooked up with real bosses in this shady music industry. He doesn’t work with peasants like that broke woman beater Nas. And I agree with the ones below, Nas can’t pick a beat to save his life and only has one overrated album that dropped two and a half decades ago. Worst discography in music. Stream Queen BEY’s Lion King album. It’s the ROC in here!
Yo that’s just hate any person would take time to listen interview and hate mean either you like on the low or a hater! It’s music not made for everyone to like same shit that’s what make music so poplar ! Grow up be proud got rich black men!
Its not about rich black men cause Nas is not rich but its about the music and clearly Jay Z the billionaire, his name rings more bells. But hands down Nas is a better rapper a better story teller and from what i hear and read a better MAN and thats really no debate but the guy u are talking to WOW he knows nothing about either artist!! FACTS!?
And i was talking to Ron
Nas is supposedly worth $60 million. He’s not Hov rich but he ain’t Ahmad Sumadi middle class either…
Nas is not rich? Man you need to get your facts strait. His Venture Capital firm has been KILLING IT having made 2 HUGE sales last year with more on the way. Nas made more money on his investments last year than 99% of people make in their whole lives PLUS he is semi independent and makes more off his music than when he was younger even though he does not put up the same sales numbers. In fact Nas’s Venture Capital Firm has done so well that Jay Z created his own as well which has not had as many successes. Jay Z is richer now, sure but they have a lot of life to live. Despite the success of Nas on a business level, and more importantly than all that Nas has also creatively been on a huge upswing. NASIR was his best record since Stillmatic. He is killing it in the business world AND still remaining true to what he has always been first and foremost; the greatest poet of his generation and an artistic genius. Nas is ALREADY worth hundreds of millions of dollars… that is fucking MITT ROMNEY KINDA MMONEY….and you don’t think he is rich? Just because Jay Z is EVEN RICHER? It seems clear that you are not an economics major wh? Art is subjective. If you want to say HOV is better than Nas as a Rapper that’s your opinion and nobody can say your wrong any more than they could say I am wrong for preferring Nas… but anyone who says is NOT RICH YET… is telling demonstrably lying. You do realise that story about prince was from 21 years ago…right???
My reply got sent to you do not know why In was not addressing you but the guy who called Nas “not rich” and the guy who came up with the 60million Number from who knows where… sorry for the confusion
AGREE WITH YOU 100
It’s the hardest to name the Mount Rushmore of Hip-Hop but any of this six name below should be in the final four:
Kool G Rap
Black Thought
Common
Jadakiss
Nas
Biggie
Kool herc sugarhill gang kurtis blow and run dmc