For the past few months, Mass Appeal Records has been releasing a series of albums from New York rap greats under its Legend Has It… banner, including projects from Big L, De La Soul, Ghostface Killah, Mobb Deep, Raekwon, and Slick Rick. There’s even been a comic book from Marvel Comics (it’s…fun).
However, the crown jewel of this initiative was the long-awaited collaboration album from Nas and DJ Premier, which the two have reportedly been working on for the better part of the past twenty years.
Now, we have a release date, at long last. Playing a show Wednesday night in Bristol, England, with The Alchemist Premier hyped the crowd by teasing them with the project’s imminent release. “How many people are ready for that Nas-Premier album?” he asked. “December 12th, get ready, motherf*ckers.”
That means in less than a month, fans will finally hear a project that was first teased nearly twenty years ago. Fans had long been demanding a full album from the two in 2006 when Nas first told Scratch magazine that they were working on one, thanks to the success of their prior collaborations. Premier had been instrumental — no pun intended — in producing a third of Nas’ groundbreaking debut, Illmatic (producing “N.Y. State of Mind,” “Memory Lane [Sittin’ in da Park],” and “Represent”), then had appeared on at least one standout track from his next few albums (“I Gave You Power” from It Was Written, “Nas Is Like” from I Am…, and “2nd Childhood” from Stillmatic among them).
However, updates on the album were few and far between, and since the initial announcement, Nas released nine other albums — six of the most recent of which all with one producer, Hit-Boy — a collab album with Damian Marley, and the second Lost Tapes compilation. For a long time, it seemed like one of those fantasy projects rappers are always brainstorming that never come to fruition or end up in the vault for one reason or another.
Now, though, rap’s latest Chinese Democracy is finally on its way. Stay tuned.