Nas and Hit-Boy dropped their fourth collaborative project together on Friday, King's Disease 3 without a single feature on the tracklist. The third installment in the King's Disease album series sees Nas and Hit-Boy's chemistry thriving and growing further.
Even though he didn't appear on the album, Jay Electronica inadvertently inspired a bar on the project's highlight, "Hood2Hood." In the song, Nas raps about other rappers who want to shoot up the studio. "If one clique make a million today, it probably be us/ Probably because my Midas touch for viral stuff/ Rappers wanna shoot up the studio, they tired of us," he raps on the song.
According to Hit-Boy, that bar, in particular, references a text from Jay Electronica. The producer shared the backstory of the inspiration behind the lyric on Twitter after the album dropped.
"'Rappers wanna shoot up the studio they tired of us’ no [Baseball cap emoji] jay electronica called me randomly while me and Nas were working on ‘Hood2Hood’ and i put him on speaker he said ‘if y’all in there working on more music i’m coming to shoot the studio up’ jokingly of course," Hit-Boy explained.
KD 3 arrives less than a year after the duo's surprise release of Magic at the tail end of 2021. In contrast to KD3, the two enlisted the likes of A$AP Rocky and DJ Premier for contributions on the album.
Nas and Hit-Boy have had tremendous success since they first linked up. The release of King's Disease felt like a welcome return for the Queensbridge vet. While it was met with critical acclaim, Nas and Hit-Boy also won the Grammy for Best Rap Album. It marked Nas' first Grammy award of his illustrious career.
We'll see if King's Disease 3 earns Nas and Hit-Boy another award at the Grammys. Let us know your favorite song on the project below.
