Nas, Diddy, Rod Wave and More – New Hip-Hop Projects

The end of another week brings a whole slew of new sounds to the rap game. This time around, a Queens icon drops the third installment of a revered project series, a billionaire rap mogul delivers his first solo album in 17 years, a soulful Florida rap-crooner chronicles his life with a new LP and more.

Nas Closes Comes Through With Magic 3 Album, His Final Joint Project With Hit-Boy

Just in time for his 50th birthday, Nas comes through with his new Hit-Boy-produced album, Magic 3. Immediately following the most recent installment in the series, Magic 2, which dropped in June, Nas surprised hip-hop heads with his new LP as it was just announced seemingly out of nowhere earlier this week.

After a run that produced a total of six widely revered albums, including both the Magic series and the three iterations of King’s Disease, Magic 3 serves as the final joint project from the now-legendary rapper-producer combo of Nas and Hit-Boy. Following the album’s announcement on Tuesday (Sept. 12), Hit-Boy hit up X, formerly known as Twitter, to share a warm sentiment about collaborating with the masterful Queens MC over the past few years.

“Nas is dropping his last Hit-Boy produced album on his 50th bday this Thursday,” Hit-Boy tweeted. “Magic 3. Those are tears of joy btw. thank you to any and everyone who has listened and supported the movement.”

Read More: 50 Cent Discusses Collaborating With Nas for the First Time in Over 20 Years on New Nas Album Magic 2

Diddy Returns With The Love Album: Off the Grid, His First Solo LP in 17 Years

Just days removed from receiving the Global Icon Award at the 2023 MTV Video Music Awards on Tuesday (Sept. 12), Diddy is living up to his alter-ego, Love, in the form of The Love Album: Off the Grid. Boasting the album as “a journey of retreating from the craziness of the world with a partner by shutting out all the distractions to just love on one another,” Diddy enlisted a wide array of top-notch artists for his first solo LP in 17 years.

The Love Album: Off the Grid finds Diddy linking up R&B crooners like The Weeknd, Mary J. Blige and Babyface with MCs like 21 Savage, Fabolous and Busta Rhymes, among many others. In promotion of the 23-track romantic opus, Diddy released a behind-the-scenes video trailer as a preview of what was to come.

“I’m coming with something where you could listen to your heart, listen to the way you feel” Diddy explains in the video below. “My heart has been broken. I still got that question of like, ‘Am I gonna love again?’ We in the love era. That’s the frequency that I’m asking you to be a part of.”

Rod Wave Delivers New Nostalgia Album

Following 2022’s critically acclaimed album, Beautiful Mind, Rod Wave delivers Nostalgia. The emotion-driven Florida rap-crooner previewed his new LP with four songs including, “Fight the Feeling,” which has spent 18 weeks on the Billboard Hot 100 singles chart since its April release, as well as “Come See Me,” “Call Your Friends” and “Boyz Don’t Cry.”

“YOU don’t know me you know who I use to be,” Rod Wave wrote on Instagram regarding the Nostalgia album along with a clip from his recent interview on the Million Dollaz Worth of Game podcast. “My fault I guess I keep the world out my business so much that y’all just assume every album is about the year journey I took in between projects or battles I faced!! 9/15/23 I’m dropping again.”

Read More: September 2023 New Music Releases

Check out other new projects this week from Vic Mensa, Sleepy Hallow, Killer Mike and more below.