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Nas and DJ Premier are getting fans' hopes up after they seemingly alluded to a long-overdue joint project.
For the past two weeks, the seasoned MC has taken fans on a trip down memory lane ahead of the 30th anniversary of his debut album Illmatic. On Wednesday, April 17, Nas posted a throwback, black-and-white photo of him and Preemo followed by a current shot of them together in New York City. In the caption, the King's Disease rapper emphasized the 30-year gap between both photos and dropped a hint about plans for a new collaboration.
"Then v.s Now. What if…" Nas wrote.
Premier was instrumental to the making of Nas' 1994 debut LP from producing hits like "N.Y. State of Mind," "Represent" and "Memory Lane (Sittin' In Da Park)" all the way down to the album's sequencing. The duo have reunited on other tracks over the years like “N.Y. State of Mind Pt. II” in 1999 and “Beat Breaks" from Preemo's Hip-Hop Vol. 1 EP, which dropped in 2022.
Fans have been waiting for a collaborative album from the Queensbridge native and the legendary producer since Nasir dropped a hint about the project on his 2022 album King's Disease III. On the track "30," he raps “Premier album still might happen." There has been zero confirmation about the rumored joint album's existence. However, Nas' only update about the project has kept fans hopeful about its release ever since.
Prior to his photos with Preemo, Nas also reminisced about the making of Illmatic with throwback photos of the LP's contributors including Large Professor, Q-Tip, Pete Rock and AZ.
"Grainy pictures for grainy times," Nas wrote in his caption. "I had a dream I could get my favorite producers to produce on my debut album. I knew exactly what I wanted and how it should be. But I didn’t know anyone except for Paul, so I asked him would he connect me to them all. The cool soul brother that he is helped me line it up. On April 19th we smashed s**t. Even tho the album leaked months before the release date we still are apart of music history. Thank you Large Professor (Paul) and Dj Premier who drove into the projects to pick me up a time or two. Qtip , Pete Rock , and my man from The Bridge DJ LES, and my guy AZ who was just coming up himself. And thank you to everyone involved. Friday is the albums 30th. 2 The Listeners- ONE LOVE ❤️ 🦍"