Escobar season has begun.
If you tuned into Nas’ YouTube livestream event introducing his newest album, NASIR, last night, you were ready to embrace a moment of musical and lyrical brought to fans exclusively from Queensbridge.
Live under a lit Queensboro Bridge, Hip-Hop heavyweights and diehard rap fans gathered for a non-traditional experience and were joined by the likes of Jadakiss, Fabulous, Pusha T and more.
It has been six years since the Illmatic rapper’s last full-length release, Life is Good. A lot has changed since then.
NASIR only brought out the best from Hip-Hop’s most royal figures. The album’s intro, which also features a Kanye verse, announces that “Escobar Season begins.”
Created by a one-man production team known as Kanye West, the album’s production is tailor made for Queensbridge’s finest to weave his bars into each sample seamlessly with each beat made with meticulous precision.
Mr. West introduced his production style in the early 2000s, in the midst of one of rap’s biggest beefs of all time: Jay-Z vs. Nas.
Jay-Z and Nas eventually squashed their beef, and in 2005, Nas delivered a verse on Kanye’s Late Registration, for “We Major.” Since then, the world hasn’t received a Nas and Kanye collaboration of this magnitude, until now.
The album will be available on Apple Music, Tidal and Spotify later today. But until that moment comes, you can get an exclusive listen here.
Check out some of social media’s NASIR reactions below.
The king is back… #NASIR pic.twitter.com/XyFg4nMcYk
— Muammar King Sambo (@LordJovis) June 15, 2018
Kanye gave Nas the best beats of his life #NASIR
— Sowmya Krishnamurthy (@SowmyaK) June 15, 2018
nas album already a classic off the cover #nasir pic.twitter.com/0lGxThNuPO
— brian b.dot™ miller (@bdotTM) June 14, 2018
the new @Nas album… Straight classic. It deserves a Grammy. This is real rap. This is real hip hop. #NASIR
— MMGEst (@EstMMG) June 15, 2018
Every beat on #Nasir pic.twitter.com/z7Vi752T30
— Tone+? (@ThecoleVI) June 15, 2018
Jay-Z somewhere listening to #Nasir livestream like… dang Ye. pic.twitter.com/6fxomm1GWs
— Marlon aka Motown (@AkaMotown) June 15, 2018