Kool G Rap’s name rings bells in Hip-Hop, but time often erodes our collective braincells. G helped bring Nas to the forefront of Hip-Hop and the QB don has not looked back since with his never-ending relevance. This is the one and only time they worked together – “Fast Life” from G’s 1995 album 4,5,6.
Here is what G Rap said to Complex about Nas:
“Fast Life” was looked at as a passing of the torch to Nas, because before I had been shopping him around. He recorded his whole demo in my studio. By the time we did “Fast Life” together, Nas had already started to make his entry into the game. That was the first time we had rapped together on a song, and the timing made it a passing of the torch. Before that, I set up a meeting with Lyor Cohen and Kevin Liles at Def Jam to talk about Nas. Kevin Liles was the one who said that he sounds too much like a G Rap, and so Def Jam passed. I knew I had some influence on him but I knew he had his own identity.
— Kool G Rap