Yo!
Welcome back to the show.
Thank you for having me.
Yeah, man, welcome back, congratulations
on the new album.
You know, I was thinking about this today when we were
talking about you coming on.
I was like, you are a living hip hop legend.
[cheering]
And I think the significance of that
for me lies in the meaning both ways.
One, you are still in the game, you're still doing it,
you're still contributing, you're
still making great music.
But also, you are a living hip hop legend.
We take for granted how many legends we've lost in hip hop.
We take for granted how many people aren't
around who are part of that.
Do you ever wake up in the morning
and think to yourself, damn, so many of the people I started
with in this game aren't here anymore,
and I'm still here getting to be a part of it?
All the time, all the time.
Somebody, a friend of mine today called me and told me,
he said, yo, you realize how long you've been around
and how much you survived and things you've been through?
We just lost a hip hop artist the other week, man.
Yeah.
Takeoff.
And may he rest in peace.
And you know, I lost so many friends
even before I got into music.
I didn't think I would get into music
and then still see it going on.
Yeah, you've done that.
You've done more than just survive it,
you've succeeded in it, you've thrived in it.
And I think what I love about this album is how it feels
like you almost reminiscing whilst also
writing a piece of the future.
Yeah.
You know, you've always been to this day,
everyone will say one of the greatest
lyricists that's ever lived.
But the stories that you tell, the way you weave.
I mean, for instance, everyone who was in hip hop
was familiar with like your beef with Jay-Z, what it was.
And I loved how I'd here you talk about that beef, what
it was, how it disappeared.
But how you'll still text him saying,
you know this isn't over, right?
Well, when I released the tracklist
for the album the other day, he released a picture
with all his Grammys.
[laughs]
Yeah.
Shout out to him.
And a shout out to Hit-Boy, who produced
this album, the entire album.
He produced the other two albums,
and also the album, Magic.
Yeah.
We slipped in four albums in two years.
And you've been proof--
And the reason, yeah.
Thanks, man.
Thanks.
And the reason I think it happened,
is because we started the first one
in 2020 when the pandemic hit.
Yeah.
So at first I was scared to come outside.
And then Hit-Boy was in the studio like, come on, man,
it's like a month you didn't leave your house.
And he got me to come outside and had nothing else to do.
Right.
And we finished the first one really quick,
and we said, we should do this again.
And here we are with the third one on my label, Mass Appeal.
I would love to know, yeah, I'd love to know that when you
look at hip hop as a whole, you were there
when it was only seen as gangsta rap.
You were there when it was completely
ostracized from society.
Now it's at the Super Bowl.
Now it is at a hockey game.
I remember that's when I was like, wow,
OK, hip hop has done it.
No, for real.
I'd love to know where you would like
to see the game progressing to now
that it's not in the exact same place it was before.
I think it evolved, and I think
people can realize that you don't have to be scared of it.
We learn from our mistakes, and then we can grow in it.
We don't have to stay doing one thing.
The ones who stay doing one thing,
unfortunately they fall off.
And we have to understand that like hip hop is now is going
on 50 years and we've been behind this whole 50
years will be next year hip hop has been alive.
So we've been behind trying to create
this museum that's coming up in the Bronx right now.
It's amazing.
And the mayor has even gotten involved.
That's amazing.
Mayor Adams, and you know, and I noticed yeah,
I noticed one thing, the culture is like,
artists don't think they can go pass one way,
or we have to be all in one like area
trying to fight for crumbs.
And it's like, hip hop's a multi sound genre.
So like in rock, you don't have,
you don't compare Kiss to the Rolling Stones.
But in hip hop for some reason, we're fighting it
for the same thing and you feel like you have to be the number
one guy all the time.
So hip hop is a multi sound genre.
You can have multiple things going on at once.
Doesn't matter how if you're 20 years old or 40 years
old or whatever, it's a beautiful culture
and I love all of it.
So I think that we should all as writers
get out of your comfort zone and spread your wings
and expand with your sound.
Yeah, I really like that.
Before I let you go, I want to talk
about that idea of being more.
We know you for the music.
We know you for being in the restaurant business
and doing extremely well, being successful with that.
We also getting in--
Somebody said it, Sweet Chick.
Yeah, you've been there? - Yeah.
All right.
It's phenomenal, people love it.
And you know, I remember eating and someone was like, you
know Nas owns this chicken.
I was like, this chicken that I'm holding right now?
It was a weird way that someone said it to me.
But you're also getting involved
in a different type of storytelling,
which is in film.
You know, I know that you directed a documentary.
Yeah.
You know, that talks about the Supreme world of like,
it was this underworld in Queens,
and I know you're also involved in a really fascinating story
about the Civil Rights icons.
Everybody, Malcolm X, Martin Luther King Jr., et cetera.
Yeah, yeah.
What is it about that world that entices you?
Why are you stepping into documentaries,
filmmaking, et cetera, and doing well at it?
I'm a movie buff. I love films.
For real?
And, yeah, I love films, I love 'em, love 'em, love 'em.
I was, Halloween I was going Friday the 13th crazy.
I was doing Halloween crazy.
I went to see Halloween Ends and all of that.
It was a whole thing.
What's your favorite film?
What is like the movie that you can never get enough of,
you watch it over and over and over?
Beat Street, the old school hip hop film.
[cheering]
OK.
That's my favorite.
Then it comes The Godfathers and all of that stuff.
OK, OK.
You know, Godfather's a family movie, you know?
It's a beautiful thing, you know?
But yeah, I love films, I love Steven Spielberg.
I rapped about him on one of my first raps.
And I always wanted to get into it.
So the Supreme Team was one about an underworld
organization in Queens long ago.
We hear about the Gottis and all
of those, John Gotti and stuff, but we
never really hear about this.
So I like to uncover things, the good,
the bad, the ugly in America.
And this story was some innocent people
and some people are guilty.
Some are innocent probably.
But the new one, The Invaders that just came out,
you can catch it on Apple, Amazon Prime,
it's about this organization of musicians, intellectuals,
Vietnam vets who got together who
were trying to strike against a garbage truck company--
Yeah.
--Where someone was killed in this faulty truck.
And there was no pensions, the money was bad.
And Martin Luther King came down there
and he stood with the Memphis people,
the people that were striking and he found
out who the Invaders were.
And they wanted to protect the march,
because the first March was bad.
Yeah, yeah.
Of course, we know the end, how Martin Luther
King you know, what happens.
But there's another look into that story
through the eyes of the Invaders.
Right.
And most of them are still alive.
And it's a really good picture.
And 1967, and it's amazing.
So there's so many stories to uncover all over the world.
And here's my world.
I want to talk about it.
Another one besides Sweet Chick, I got to tag
is COTE, Michelin star restaurant, COTE.
You got to go.
You got to go. - That's you?
Yeah.
I'm, it's not me, but I'm a part of it.
Yeah, but still, that's you.
Yeah, that's me.
- Wow! - Yeah.
- Man of many talents. - Thank you, man.
I appreciate you. Congratulations again.
Thank you.
Thank you so much for coming on the show.
Kings Disease 3 is out now.
Nas, everybody.