Not every rapper is blessed to have the long career that Nas has had. Eventually, hip-hop veterans tend to transition into legacy and touring acts. Releasing new albums would usually be few and far between. For a while, the Queens MC followed that line of thinking. With a variety of different creative avenues in his pocket, he didn’t need to rap. When he released the underwhelming NASIR with Kanye West in 2018, he could’ve ridden off into the sunset.
But with the release of King’s Disease, which came out six years ago today, Nas found new life in partnering with superstar producer Hit-Boy. The record bridged older and newer generations by teaming him with Charlie Wilson and Don Toliver. Moreover, he never stylistically compromised in his rapping to fit in with Lil Durk or Fivio Foreign.
Instead, Hit-Boy laid the groundwork for a familiar blueprint that lent to his strong suits. Evidently, it worked out as the duo won Best Rap Album at the Grammys, the first of his career. Admittedly, the Illmatic rapper was reluctant to accept it, taking pride in being one of the all-time great artists to never win one.
Nas Released ‘King’s Disease’ On This Day Six Years Ago to Massive Fanfare
“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.”
Critics naturally fell in love with the nostalgic retreat from Nas and Hit-Boy in 2020. Robin Murray of Clash Magazine marveled at some of the nuttier writing that gave listeners so much to chew on.
“The King’s Disease finds Nas grappling with a raft of contradictions, contrasting the opulence of his lifestyle with the need for vitality in his message. It’s not perfect, but it’s less an end product, and more the search for creative process,” they wrote. “By the end, you become convinced the Queens rapper has found his throne.”
On the contrary, some found the record to be a little too comfortable and complacent to truly stick. “The new album marks a retreat into a nostalgia-act comfort zone—one which suits Nas, even as it yields diminishing returns,” Pete Tosiello of Pitchfork argued.
The post 6 Years Ago Today, This Hip-Hop Veteran Caught a Second Wave With Star-Studded, Grammy-Winning Album appeared first on VICE.
