Nas is one of the most respected and acclaimed rappers in the history of the genre. But even he has some regrets. For example, there’s a song on his 1999 album I Am… that he now finds to be “corny.”
During a 2018 appearance on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert, Nas and the host got onto the topic of lyrics. Colbert asked Nas if he had any lines he regretted. The rapper replied by name-dropping an entire song: “Dr. Knockboot“.
With a shamed look in his eye, he said he “regretted” recording the track. “I regret letting people talk me into putting it on an album,” Nas added. Colbert asked if the song was “cheap,” to which the rapper replied that it was more “corny.”
Fast forward more than two decades, and Nas has a total of 17 studio albums under his belt, and he’s making new business moves outside of hip-hop. During a 2025 Rolling Stone interview, Nas shared that he has a proposal to expand a casino in Queens that is being approved, while his old rival Jay-Z lost approval for a Times Square casino.
“It is just a thing that some people are going to talk about,” he said of people comparing the two of them years after they squashed their beef. “No one has any control over things like that. I still study Rakim and Big Daddy Kane. Some rap fans just like to go off on those things from time to time. That’s it.”
Nas didn’t just talk shop, though; he also shone a light on the next generation of rap royalty. The legendary rapper took a moment to praise Kendrick Lamar as the next big hip-hop icon to carry the torch.
“We all as artists love this art form and have our opinions on it,” he told Rolling Stone. “Kendrick is one of the brightest stars we’ve ever seen, and I don’t only mean superstar, I mean like the North Star—I think he’s one of those.”
“Out of all the artists in this business, there’s some that’s not here for the art,” Nas added. “When we see those people that are not here for the art damaging it, you’re hurting the future of the art. So I think artists like Kendrick are going to speak out.”
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