Nas Recounts The Time Prince Shut Down A Request For A Feature

With over 25 years in the rap game, Nas undoubtedly has some stories. NORE’s podcast, Drink Champs is undoubtedly the best place for rappers to share some unheard stories from the past. Fresh off of the release of Lost Tapes 2, he sat down with NORE and DJ EFN for an in-depth conversation where he shared the time that he unsuccessfully asked Prince to collaborate with him.

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Nas has collaborated with a lot of artists in his time but he never managed to get a collaboration with Prince. He did try, though. The rapper opened up about the time that he ran into the late singer and asked for a feature. Unfortunately, he was denied the verse but Prince also provided some valuable insight to Nas’ future as an artist.

“I sought him because he came to by I Am album release party,” he began. “I pulled a NORE move. I said, ‘Yo look, man. Let’s do this. Let’s do this song.’ And he said, ‘Do you own your masters?’ But he blew my shit because I was like, ‘I don’t.’ And I’m far from it ’cause I owe this label four, five albums.”

Ultimately, Nas was denied the feature but Prince did say that there were possibilities in the future. “He kind of helped me see the future. And he was like, ‘when you owe your masters, give me a ring.'”

Peep the episode below with the Prince bit coming at the 48:55 mark.