Nas is currently promoting the 20th anniversary and reissue of his classic album, Illmatic, and while over in the UK, he stopped at BBC Radio to speak with Zane Lowe. Lowe has constantly been churning out extensive interviews with everyone from Kanye West to Jay Z and Eminem over the past year.
The two spoke on working with Q-Tip, Large Professor, and DJ Premier on Illmatic, and what he intended the album to be at first, as well as flying the Fugees out for the “If I Ruled The World” video and losing his rhyme book on the train.
Perhaps the most interesting part of the conversation is around the 12 minute mark, where Nas talks about the creation of "The World Is Yours" and going to Mount Vernon to record it. When speaking about working with Pete Rock, Nas says that he got a bunch of beats, and some that he didn't use ended up on one of Pete Rock & CL Smooth's albums.
"I remember talking to Kanye about beats and he was telling me which beat he gave—like "All of the Lights," he gave to Jeezy or he gave another beat to Common and Common didn't want it. And he heard it for his album and used it," Nas said. "These guys are giving us their A-1 stuff and sometimes we don't see their vision. I tell you what, when he gave me 'The World Is Yours,' I saw it right there, I knew what it was."
Listen below:
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