Will hip-hop fans ever get to hear Nas and Kendrick Lamar on the same song? The former is not ruling it out.
Sitting down with Complex ahead of his appearance at New York Comic Con to promote Mass Appeal and Marvel’s new Legend Has It comic book collaboration, the Queensbridge rap legend was asked about the prospect of jumping on a track with King Kenny.
“Oh, man. It’s just all about the artist,” he answered. “When you get the chance to record and work together, for me it should feel really natural. That would be great, I’d love to work with him.
“But I feel like it would have to be smooth the way it connects. Anything I do with anybody, especially someone like [Kendrick], I just want to take my time with it. So we’ll see. Hopefully.”
Nas then modestly joked: “All you MCs out there, give me a call, man! I got some verses here and there. They’re hit or miss.”
Though Nas and Kendrick Lamar have yet to work together on music, the mutual respect between the MCs runs deep.
After Kendrick was announced as the headliner of the 2025 Super Bowl halftime show last year, Esco saluted him by writing on his Instagram Stories: “Congratulations to my brotha. Can’t wait to watch the party die!!!!!”
K. Dot, of course, referenced this post on his GNX opener “Wacced Out Murals,” ferociosly rapping: “Won the Super Bowl and Nas the only one congratulate me / All these n*ggas agitated, I’m just glad they showin’ they faces / Quite frankly, plenty artists, but they outdated / Old-ass flows, tryna convince me that you they favorite.”
The Compton native also appeared to pay homage to Nas on that album, with his “Man at the Garden” beat sounding eerily reminiscent of Nas’ equally introspective Stillmatic classic “One Mic.”
More recently, Nas heaped high praise onto Kendrick in an interview with Rolling Stone, crowning him hip-hop’s “North Star” for his ability to speak up when hip-hop needs it, as evidenced on last year’s “Watch the Party Die.’
“Kendrick is one of the brightest stars we’ve ever seen, and I don’t only mean superstar, I mean like the North Star — I think he’s one of those,” he said. “Out of all of the artists in this business, there’s some that’s not here for the art. When we see those people that are not here for the art damaging it, you’re hurting the future of the art. So I think artists like Kendrick are going to speak out.”
Nas continued: “There’s a couple of ’em out there, younger, older that say what they say. I think there was an OutKast video, one of those guys wore a “Hip Hop Is Dead” shirt even before I said it, I didn’t see that until later. It’s just been in the conversation naturally, like any sport you want to thrive. You don’t want the NBA to start slowing down. You want it to thrive. The ball players want it to thrive. We’re going to call out anytime we see it. Sometimes the rest of us won’t see it. Sometimes it’ll take Kendrick to remind us where we are lacking.
