Credit: Mikamote

John Lennon and Paul McCartney are two of the greatest singer-songwriters of all time. It’s impossible to pick between them in terms of their Beatles catalogue, but they each made different impacts as solo artists. Despite the difficult task of deciding who’s superior, Queensbridge’s own Nas believes Lennon is the outright better artist.

After the band parted ways, Lennon released classic solo albums like Imagine and Double Fantasy alongside his wife, Yoko Ono. On the other hand, McCartney released albums like his self-titled effort and projects alongside his own partner, Linda McCartney, as Wings. Nas might have a preference when it comes to the pair, but it’s no shade on McCartney’s talent.

“Well, first of all, Paul McCartney is one of the most incredible artists who has ever walked the earth in my eyes; The Beatles are incredible,” he told NME. “But I love Lennon’s solo journey because he dedicated his life to breaking down all the systemic bullshit in the world that he saw.”

Nas raps about the duo on ‘The Cure’ from his Grammy-winning King’s Disease album, which was released in 2020 and produced entirely by Hit-Boy. In the first verse, he raps, “The markets see you as an old-ass artist/ The McCartneys live past the Lennons, but Lennon’s the hardest/ Stay on your path, stay on your craft/ They just want you to switch your lanes up so they can hate on your ass.”

By mentioning them on the record, he was paying tribute to two legends who came before him. “I wanted to reference people who were hot before I was born as a nod to the timeless music and art that continues to impact the world,” he said. “Paul McCartney is still with us, and he’s a bad motherfucker. John Lennon didn’t live this long, unfortunately, but some would consider him greater than most artists.”

On another occasion, Nas named Lennon and Ono as two of his heroes alongside Bob Dylan, Malcolm X, and Muhammad Ali. Speaking on Ono and Lennon’s post-Beatles work, he told King magazine, “How could you not love Yoko? She gave us ‘Give Peace a Chance’ and ‘Imagine’. When John Lennon left the Beatles, he was able to do that shit.”

While McCartney has never collaborated with Nas, he’s made known his appreciation of hip-hop music over the years. The 83-year-old singer worked with one of Nas’ frequent collaborators, Kanye West, on ‘FourFiveSeconds’, ‘Only One’, and ‘All Day’ in 2015. Macca once admitted that he was jealous of My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy, telling DIY Magazine. “That was the record of his that I really envied. I thought, ‘Oh, he’s done some good stuff.’”

He also praised Ye and Jay-Z’s collaborative album. “Watch the Throne with Jay-Z, [too]. I like that,” he said. “It’s not like I’m a big hip-hop fan, but I went to see Kanye and Jay-Z and really came away thinking it was like urban poetry. I was very impressed. So when the word came that he wanted to work with me, I was flattered.”