Nas and DJ Premier are finally set to release an album together, but the news appeared to catch the legendary producer off guard.
The longtime collaborators uploaded a video on Instagram on Tuesday (April 23) documenting the making of their latest single “Define My Name,” which serves as the first offering from their upcoming joint project.
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At one point in the behind-the-scenes footage, the pair can be seen in the studio together when Premo asks Nas: “So you about to drop another album?” — referencing his prolific partnership with Hit-Boy, which has produced six albums in four years.
The Queensbridge rap legend answers: “With Premier,” which takes the producer by surprises as he enthusiastically replies: “Oh, okay!”
The duo announced their currently-untitled joint album last week with the release of “Define My Name,” which conveniently arrived on the 30th anniversary of Nas’ landmark debut Illmatic.
The boom bap banger ends with some friendly back-and-forth between Nas and DJ Premier, with the former saying: “I got the rhymes, you got the beats… 30 years later we back in the streets, we back in the lab… It’s album time.”
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According to a press release, the project will be released later this year through Nas’ Mass Appeal Records.
The collaborative album has been long teased by both Hip Hop legends, with Nas first discussing it in a 2006 interview with Scratch magazine (the cover of which he appeared on alongside Premier).
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“We talked about doing an album together and some of the listeners want to rush the shit — I wanna rush it, too — but I just want to pull pieces from all kinds of different people for this next puzzle because a lot of people think shit got easy, that I quit,” he said of his then-forthcoming LP Hip Hop Is Dead.
Nas and Premo’s potent partnership dates back three decades, with the Gang Starr producer famously contributing three tracks to Illmatic: “N.Y. State of Mind,” “Represent” and “Memory Lane (Sittin’ In Da Park).”
Following other fan-favorite cuts like “I Gave You Power,” “Nas Is Like” and “2nd Childhood,” they reunited for the first time in a decade in 2022 for “Beat Breaks” from Premier’s Hip Hop 50 Volume 1 project.
Nas recently announced that he will be touring the UK and the rest of Europe later this year to celebrate the 30th anniversary of Illmatic.
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The veteran MC will play four shows in the UK including one at London’s Royal Albert Hall, with additional performances in Manchester, Wolverhampton and Edinburgh this November.
See the tour dates below and click here for tickets.
