Nas teams up with fellow New Yorker, A$AP Rocky in the visuals for “Wave Gods,” a nostalgia-driven video that gives viewers a glimpse of life at both ends of the wealth spectrum in the Big Apple.
Taken from Nas and Hit-Boy’s latest collaborative effort, Magic, the gritty video sees Flako and Nasir go from sleeping on benches and scouring for change on the subway to living the high-life, exploring how their paths could have turned out differently. “Every choice you make, makes you,” flashes on screen at the opener, foreshadowing the events to come.
Though incarcerated, the Wave God himself, Max B makes a cameo during the opening scene. “Nas, what’s good beloved?” he says on a voicemail. “Flack, what up beloved? Premo, I see you,” he says. “I’ma be home soon, god,” while a “Free Max B” poster hangs on the wall of the project apartment. Watch the video below.
Nas – “Wave Gods” feat. A$AP Rocky and DJ Premier
Magic is the third project the Queensbridge rapper created with producer Hit-Boy, following the King’s Disease albums. Nas, who refers to Hit-Boy as the Quincy Jones to his Michael Jackson, shared his surprised at just how successful the pairing has become.
The duo planned to collaborate on a couple of tracks at the start of the global pandemic. “It just so happened that the world stopped just as we started doing the two songs,” Nas explained. “He kept on at me to come up to the studio and work, and he pushed me to make it work.
Nas continued, “I was already a fan of his work, so I knew if we got in a room we would do something cool. I knew there would be great s###, but I didn’t know if that would be one song, two songs, or five songs. I definitely didn’t know it would be an album,” he added.
While they have delivered three studio albums in only 24 months, Nas feels under no pressure to continue at this pace. “It happened because it happened,” he said. “Like to drop two albums in a year, that was just the electricity in it, you know what I mean? That’s just how the energy was for me and Hit-Boy. So I mean, if anything I’m slowing it down a bit, maybe.”
Nas teased a third King’s Disease project back in December so we could have another one on the way soon.