The Nas collaboration Raekwon called one of his favourite songs
Believe it or not, Nas and Raekwon have only collaborated on one occasion, despite both being from New York City. The duo are two of the most legendary rappers of all time between Nas’ work as a solo artist and Rae’s storied career, starting as a member of Wu-Tang Clan.
Only Built 4 Cuban Linx…, also known as The Purple Tape, served as the first time that a Wu-Tang member had collaborated with someone outside of the group. Nas had the honour of being that someone on ‘Verbal Intercourse’, which many have cited as one of the best rap verses of all time. The pair flexed their lyrical superpowers over a RZA beat that samples The Emotions’ 1972 song ‘If You Think It (You May as Well Do It)’.
“That one right there though, the beat was sick,” Raekwon told Complex about the collaboration. “RZA was just dominating where he wanted to take this record, and I was just right there with him all the time co-signing the beats. At that time me and Nas were real close. He would come see me at my crib. I’d come see him up in Queens. And I always told him I want him on the album.”
Raekwon brought him out to Staten Island one day and headed over to RZA’s house. They went down to the basement and found him listening to the beat that eventually became ‘Verbal Intercouse’; RZA told the two MCs that he wanted them on the track, with Rae knowing immediately that it had to be on his debut solo album.
Nas also felt like he should be on the record but was struggling to come up with any immediate ideas. Raekwon took it upon himself to serve the purpose of an A&R while Nas was in the recording booth, telling him what works and what doesn’t.
“Nas is up in there trying all different kinds of rhymes,” he recalled “He’s my guest, so I’m definitely paying attention to what he’s doing ‘cause at the end of the day I’m gonna make sure that he does what he need to do. He was trying shit and I was like, ‘Nah, that ain’t it right there.’”
He continued, “And then once he said that, ‘Through the lights, cameras, and action,’ I looked at n-ggas in the room. Everybody looked at me. I’m like, ‘That’s it!’ I stopped him and said, ‘Yo, that’s the verse. Do that one.’ And ever since when he did that one, it was one of the best verses in hip-hop today.”
At the time, in 1995, following the release of Illmatic, Nas was starting to be heard more and building his buzz as a representative of Queensbridge. Raekwon claimed his affiliation with Wu-Tang Clan gave him a stamp of approval for hip-hop listeners.
“We helped put that credibility on it even more when that record came out,” he said. “So it was definitely one that people was like, ‘Yo, I love this shit because this little n-gga over in Queens is nice. Then he’s fucking wit y’all and then the record is mean.’ So, it just kinda like helped everybody’s position grow in the game at that time.”