Nas Reveals Potential Plans in Recent Interview

By Mike Cotton

Illustrious rapper, Nas, was recently interviewed by NME (New Musical Express) in which they discussed his new album “King’s Disease”, possible works with Dave East, as well as his relationship and plans on working with Nipsey Hussle prior to his tragic death in March of 2019. During the interview a photo Nas posted of himself and Nipsey Hussle on his Instagram page back in August was brought to his attention. The photo was posted in order to acknowledge what would have been Nipsey Hussle’s thirty-fifth birthday in which Nas captioned it, “We had plans my brother. But The Marathon Continues!” After being asked about the caption Nas opened up about the potential plans that he had with Nipsey Hussle; surprisingly this duo didn’t intend on recording any music in a studio for this specific project. The project in mind was actually a documentary on Nas’ 1999 album “I Am”. This documentary was going to highlight the hardships that went with the initial release of the album as it was supposed to be a double album. Nas was able to use most of his songs (16 tracks) for “I Am”, but unfortunately his other songs that would’ve made it onto the album were leaked. These circumstances drove him to record more music, which resulted in him releasing “I Am” and “Nastradamus” instead of the double album. In regard to the documentary Nas stated that, “Nipsey was really serious about it and he was working on it. Not as far as gathering footage, but I gave him my blessing to do it.” According to Nas, “The Marathon Continues”, hopefully this means that the documentary is still in the works.

Working on a documentary isn’t the only thing we may be getting from Nas. Rapper, Dave East, has a song featuring Jay- Z and Timbaland sitting in the vault and wants Nas on the track as well. In his interview with NME, Nas claimed that Dave East told him about the track, but still hasn’t actually heard it yet. According to Dave East the song was supposed to be recorded and finished in time for the release of his album “Survival”, but it didn’t work out that way.

Between both of these potential projects I believe that the documentary is definitely needed. Whether they’re glorious or dark, the stories behind some of our most cherished albums need to be heard. Interesting enough, today’s generation of music fans and some of today’s most popular musicians thrive off of leaks and/or snippets. Fans go crazy for leaks. They’ll go as far as posting them on Soundcloud, or even badgering the actual artist to release it on their next album or as a single onto a platform such as Apple Music or Spotify. Looking back twenty-plus years ago it was a lot different. When his music was leaked Nas was livid, he wasn’t going out and performing those songs like a lot of artists do today when they’re in his position. To hear about the process that an artist from a totally different era had to go through once his music got leaked would be very eye-opening.