The album Nas called “the greatest moment of my life as a rap fan”
Rapper Nas has been in the game for a long time, releasing over twenty albums and collaborating with hip hop legends including 2Pac, Missy Elliot, and Ludacris in the meantime. However, the rapper has never forgotten his roots and who first inspired him to start making music.
In a 2012 article featured on Complex, the iconic American rapper shared his 25 favourite albums in no particular order. Among his picks, which included Marvin Gaye’s Here, My Dear and Michael Jackson’s Thriller, was Run-DMC’S King of Rock. The Run-DMC album, which came out in 1985, was the follow-up to the group’s 1984 debut album Run-D.M.C. Despite being financially successful, the album took slightly longer to go Platinum than their debut, but what it did have was a major impact on Nas.
Speaking to Complex, Nas shared, “That’s one of the first rap albums. The commercial success with a different sound—it had rock, they were of a next phase, next plateau from the Furious Five and the Treacherous Three. They were the next thing so they personified the next thing. And then Raising Hell showed how they evolved as hip-hop superstars.”
Nas went on to express how much he loved the album, stating, “The greatest moment of my life being a rap fan was probably when King of Rock came out.” High praise, indeed. A teenager when Run-DMC’s album came out, Nas himself started out in the rap industry in the late 1980s, going on to release his acclaimed debut album Illmatic in 1994.
The admiration Nas had for Run-DMC’s second album may have been personal, but it seems that Run-DMC are fans of Nas, too. The group collaborated with Nas on their 2001 album Crown Royal to create the track ‘Queens Day,‘ which also featured Prodigy of Mobb Deep.
Nas has additionally been open about how Run-DMC helped him realise that hip hop as a genre wasn’t just a limited thing. Speaking to Billboard to commemorate the 50th anniversary of hip hop as a genre, he revealed, “As a kid, Run-D.M.C. was breaking barriers, and I figured there was no limit to how far it could go.”
The rapper continued, “I figured when they were talking about Adidas, that thing of connecting brands with artists could happen. Bigger stars were doing this before hip-hop, and I felt the hood’s going to get a voice and connect with super brands and connect around the world.”
In a charming full-circe moment regarding Nas’ realisation that hip hop had the potential to go far, Run-DMC headlined the Hip Hop 50 celebration concert organised by Nas’ label Mass Appeal. Considering that the group released their first album in 1984, their status as headliners for the 2023 concert is a testament to their longevity.
As for Nas, the fact he continues to mention Run-DMC as major inspirations for him speaks to the fact he really did think that the release of Kings of Rock was one of the “greatest moment(s) of my life being a rap fan.”