Winning a Grammy is a crowning achievement for a lot of artists. It’s the institutional recognition that a piece of music is meant to be preserved in history. Giving such an award is a physical manifestation suggesting that you’re one of the greatest living musicians working today.
However, there are far too many all-time great albums that have been outright snubbed by the Recording Academy to say this is entirely true. Nas used to be one of those legends to never win a Grammy award. Illmatic wasn’t even acknowledged at the Grammys back in 1994. “If I Ruled The World (Imagine That)” was merely nominated in 1997 for Best Rap Solo Performance, losing to LL Cool J’s “Hey Lover”.
This routine would play out for years, where he would be nominated but never quite crowned. It wouldn’t be until 2021 that the Queens MC would get his just due. The Recording Academy awarded him Best Rap Album for King’s Disease alongside Hit-Boy. While Nas was certainly happy, there was this nagging, uneasy feeling in the back of his mind.
“I almost felt like I was abandoning all the artists that I was with who had never received any awards,” he admitted to i-D in 2021. “And that’s a cool club to be in. I take pride in being in that no-award, no-Grammy award club. I was honored.”
Nas Admittedly Wanted To Be One of the Hip-Hop Legends to Never Win a Grammy
Still, he couldn’t completely overlook such a lofty achievement. Moreover, he firmly believes that late legends like Biggie and Tupac would’ve eventually gotten their honors. But their legacies are bigger than any award they could’ve received. That’s the kind of recognition that Nas savors more than anything.
“It doesn’t matter how long you’ve been around, it doesn’t matter what people think or thought, do what you’re doing,” he said. “Keep doing what you’re doing, and somebody’s going to recognize it. It doesn’t always have to be an award show, but the universe recognizes it. And that works for me.”
That level of gratitude extends especially to how his fans received the first King’s Disease. Nas felt like he entered a second prime in his union with Hit-Boy, so he was grateful his audience and hip-hop as a whole felt the same.
“It’s the best feeling to know that other people share the same feeling we have towards the music,” Nas added. “With KD I, we owed that to ourselves; we owed that record to the listeners, we owed that to the people going through these tough times. So we knew what it was, and we sure felt like we knew what it was.”
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