Nas, DJ Premier Roll Back The ‘Years’

As tipped here in April, Nas and DJ Premier have re-teamed for the collaborative album Light-Years, which will be released Dec. 12 on the former’s Mass Appeal label. The project is part of the Legend Has It… series, which has brought forth new albums this year from fellow rap legends Slick Rick, Raekwon, Ghostface Killah, Mobb Deep, Big L and De La Soul.

For now, there’s no further information about the 15-track Light-Years, which comes more than three decades after Nas and Premier’s 1994 classic Illmatic. Last year, the pair teased Light-Years with the release of a new song, “Define My Name.”

The album can be pre-ordered from Mass Appeal’s web store in various formats, including cassette and autographed metallic label vinyl. ““I can’t wait for people to finally hear it,” Nas told Rolling Stone last month. “I don’t know about anybody else, but for me and him, it was personally a long time coming for us to do it.”

Light-Years is the follow-up to Nas’ twin 2023 releases Magic 2 and Magic 3, his 16th and 17th studio albums, respectively. He guested on all the other Mass Appeal-released hip-hop albums from this year, and also lent a hand on the title track from Clipse’s Grammy-nominated comeback album, LET GOD SORT ‘EM OUT.

Per Mass Appeal, Legend Has It… is meant to celebrate and spotlight “some of the most important and influential hip-hop artists of all time — trailblazers who’ve been instrumental in building and shaping the music and culture, and have taken it from the streets of New York to the wider world, leaving an indelible mark on music.”