“I’m Still the MC That Wants to Make Something People Can Feel”: Nas Ruminates on 50 Years of Hip-Hop

“Lucky me,” Nas says when I mention that he’s never lived in a world without hip-hop. At 49 years old, you might say that the rapper and the genre, which turns 50 this year, grew up together.

“It’s been great. I remember being a kid and hearing these rap songs and watching the break-dance thing happen and all of that, and all the way to where it became this huge, huge industry. It’s great that I saw it develop into what it is today—and you can still remember what it was,” he says via Zoom from Los Angeles, nearly 3,000 miles and 29 years removed from Illmatic, the critically acclaimed 1994 album that would eventually be inducted into the Library of Congress’s National Recording Registry and kick-start a career that has resulted in a Grammy Award, film roles, his own investment firm, and a recurring place in the GOAT MC list.

To celebrate the anniversary, the artist, born Nasir bin Olu Dara Jones, partnered with Hennessy to design a limited-edition bottle symbolic of the lifestyle, culture, and influence of hip-hop–a somewhat natural collaboration as these things go, given his repeated name-checking of the cognac. 

“On my first album, I talked about Hennessy before the first song even came on. I’m having a conversation, like, “Pass the Hennessy.” To think about that, my journey and hip-hop’s journey, this is a time, this is a year to celebrate—you know, when you’re mature enough and you’re at the legal age to indulge and celebrate in the way I like to celebrate,” he says. “You can get with what I’m doing. You can see the journey that I had. ”

Last month, Nas spoke with Vanity Fair about making his debut in the ’90s, being back in the studio during a long-awaited creative growth spurt, and getting existential.

This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity.

Vanity Fair: Illmatic came out when you were 20. Looking back now, what were your wildest dreams when you were putting out that record?

Nas: I just wanted it to be heard. I just wanted it to have some respect from the people that I grew up listening to or open up a whole new lane for artists my age, to be a new voice.

Do you ever listen to that album and are you still able to identify with that 20-year-old today, despite all of the other albums, the whole life that you’ve lived? Do you still relate to him?

I don’t listen to it, but if somebody’s playing it or it does come up, I do think about what life is like and it’s a whole different day today. And it’s like the nineties was a whole different animal and yeah, it takes me back.

What do you think the biggest difference in your creative process is today compared to then considering you’ve been in the game such a long time, you have so many albums under your belt, you have awards, you have businesses.

I don’t think about any of those things. I’m still like the MC that wants to make something that people can feel. I wanna express what I’m feeling and make that connection inside the studio so that it has this meaning and draws a picture of where my head’s at today. Hopefully people can, some people, can relate to it, but back then it was just let’s make some noise so people know who I am. Now that they know, it’s a whole different bunch of ideas that naturally an older guy would try to do. That still fits into my style. My signature style.