Nas was just 20 years old when he released his iconic debut album 'Illmatic' on April 19, 1994, now considered one of the greatest rap albums of all time. To commemorate the 30th anniversary of its release, Nas has reunited with DJ Premier, who produced several tracks on 'Illmatic,' for a new song titled "Define My Name."
On the track, Nas reflects "At 20, I said I'd better quit by 30 / Then by 30, I thought by 40 rapping is corny / How wrong was I? Never would have thought at 50, new songs by Nas would be hard and live." The song features DJ Premier's classic boom-bap beats.
The two longtime collaborators have long promised to create a full joint album together. As Nas told Scratch Magazine in 2006, "We talked about doing an album together, and some of the listeners want to rush the s--t — I wanna rush it, too — but I just want to pull pieces from all kinds of different people for this next puzzle."
After decades of anticipation, their joint album is finally slated for release later this year, with Nas declaring on "Define My Name," "I got the rhymes, you got the beats / Thirty years later, we back in the streets, we back in the lab / It's time, it's album time, yeah."
In addition to the new song, Nas has announced an Illmatic 30th anniversary tour spanning the UK and Europe from October through November 2024, kicking off in Finland and concluding with a show at London's Royal Albert Hall.