Because Nas is a legendary artist, he knows greatness when he sees/hears it. He's making sure to also give those musicians their flowers too, doing so on a new snippet. The East Coast rapper is going to be one of many features on the forthcoming De La Soul album, Cabin In The Sky.
His guest verse will come on track 11 of 20, "Run It Back!!" HipHopNMore was able to acquire a sneak peek at the song, and they caught some pretty cool shout-outs from Esco.
He raps, "Since the 80s, 90s and 00s? How it was sick, how did it slip? / Now it’s just Doechii, Dot, and SZA with most powerful hits / Leon Thomas, Shaboozey… only black artists on top the charts."
Hopefully, all five of these outstanding voices get a chance to hear this because it's truly a cool moment. They all deserve it too. The TDE trio, so to speak, have been dominating rap this entire decade so far with tours, albums, awards, and shows.
As for Leon and Shaboozey, their respective rises in both country and R&B have been extraordinary, to say the least. Their recognition continues to grow with every feature or single they drop.
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Nas DJ Premier Album
For Dot though, this isn't the only time in 2025 that he has received high praise from the Illmatic creator. During a chat with Rolling Stone and their similar tracks in "Hip Hop Is Dead" and "Watch The Party Die," Nas revealed he holds the Compton spitter in rarified air.
"We all as artists love this art form and have our opinions on it. 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 in part.
But as for De La Soul in particular, this will be their first project since 2016's and the Anonymous Nobody... It drops later tonight at midnight. It's also the second-to-last release to come during Nas and Mass Appeal's Legend Has It series.
Announced in April of this year, it's giving fellow MC GOATs like Raekwon, Ghostface Killah, Mobb Deep, and etc. a platform to show how special they all still are. Fittingly, Nas and DJ Premier's long-awaited collab album will cap off this streak of high-quality tapes.
Their still untitled effort drops December 12 and has one potential single already out. That would be April 2024's "Define My Name."
