DJ Khaled’s We the Best Radio on Friday was an historic episode that featured the debut of Big Sean and Kendrick Lamar’s “Holy Key.” As a bonus for listeners, Khaled also shared a 20-second snippet of a new Nas song, which was revealed on Major Key’s tracklist as “Nas Album Done.” Yes, Khaled just confirmed that Nas’ twelfth studio album was finished.
It’s been four years since the Queensbridge rapper’s Grammy-nominated LP, Life Is Good, released in July of 2012. The album was a success, earning him his sixth No. 1 album with 149,000 copies sold, according to Nielsen Soundscan. While Nas has talked about the beginning stages of recording his album in early 2013, the real news came from him on Twitter in April when he teased the title would be coming out next month.
Timbaland created more excitement for the project when he spoke about a song he produced for Nas' album called “Sinatra in the Sands” featuring Jay Z and Justin Timberlake. Timbaland says Timberlake sings like Frank Sinatra. "It's completely stupid," Timbo added.
From there, Nas kept his silence about the album until he gave a bit more information on the direction in an interview with Huffington Post in October:
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In 2014, Nas appeared on Microphone Check with Ali Shaheed Muhammad and Frannie Kelley, where he revealed he’s been in the studio with Timbaland, Swizz Beatz, and No I.D. He explained his process of being uninspired at first, but started to get motivated again around the time of the 20th anniversary of Illmatic. Here’s an excerpt from their conversation:
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Later that year, Nas would tell Complex that “Sinatra in the Sands” would come out "when the time is right." When Nas hopped on the remix to ScHoolboy Q’s “Studio,” he rapped in his opening verse “finished up my new album / single about to be dropping / Last album on Def Jam, I got so many options.” It fueled the rumor that his first single would be his monumental Timbo/Hov/JT collabo, but nothing ever came of it. Instead, Nas gifted us with the J. Dilla-produced "The Season," teasing more music was on the way.
In April 2015, Nas once again spoke about his mysterious album during a concert in Orlando. He sent a clear message to the crowd that his album would be coming in the summer. Although Nas didn’t end up sticking to that release date.
At the beginning of the year, Nas appeared on Khaled’s We the Best Radio as a special guest. He shared more information on his album, notably that he was back in the studio with Large Professor and Da Beatminerz. He confirmed “Sinatra in the Sands” was a real song, but was unsure if he was going to put it on the album or on another The Lost Tapes project that's been rumored to come out too.
At around the 6:20 mark, he shares some thoughts on finding inspiration again. Watch that below:
Kanye West tweeted in March that he promised President Barack Obama he would send beats to Nas for his next album. Nas didn’t give any details on ‘Ye beats or anything remotely close to that when Complex asked about the album in April, but he did talk about why he didn’t want to rush the process. "I'm letting the music dictate [the direction]. Words can't explain that," Nas said. "It's going to be a fun Nas album."
There was word that Rick Ross was signed on as an executive producer for his album, but he dismissed the rumor when we caught up with him in Los Angeles to discuss his Ghostbusters collaboration. “I’m a free artist, I’d be down to do something like that down the road,” he said of it happening one day. “I talked to Scarface years ago about producing an album for me. DJ Premier produced [an album]. I’m into that. Large Professor. Ross got great beat ideas.”
Khaled's "Nas Album Done" has fueled the speculation that we will be getting a Nas album in 2016. At this point, there’s a good chance we'll be hearing more concrete details from Nasir Jones himself in the coming months.
