There's Credible Evidence that Nas & Kanye West Jacked a Beat & Album Cover From Bay Area Producer The Architect

No idea's original, there's nothing new under the sun

Last October, Bay Area producerThe Architect released a project calledThe Architect x Nasty Nas (Remixes). On the mixtape, The Architect remixed ten classic Nas songs.

One of the tracks was a flip of "No Ideas Original." The Architect's version samples an obscure1974 song from Kourosh Yaghmaei called Gol-e Yakh.

HEAR: Stream Nas' New Album Nasir, Executive Produced by Kanye West

Eight months later Nas released his ninth studio album Nasir. One of the standouts was "Adam and Eve," a song that features the exact same sample, flipped in a similar fashion.

Listen to the similaritiesbelow:

Here's where things get more interesting: by now you're familiarwith theNasir album cover. It's a photo of a group of boys, with some holding guns. The photo was taken by journalistMary Ellen Mark. Nas tweeted out the cover the night of his album release party. But, just a couple of days before,The Architect and rapper Nowaahthe Flood dropped a projectcalledTrill Life Mathematics.

The cover for project features the exact same photo:

So what gives? Is this a coincidence or are Nas and Kanye West really intoBandcamp? The Architect talked to Complex about the matter.

READ: Nas Releases a New Line of Merch to Celebrate the Release of Nasir

During the interview,It seemed like he was trying to be polite about all of this, while acknowledging that this was all really weird:

First of all, I like to think great minds think alike. I would like to say that first. Second of all, its very odd when lightning strikes in the same place two to three times. Keep in mind they were noticing [Nowaah the Flood] on Mass Appeal. He was being featured on there a lot. They know about him because he has been around for a while.

The Architect went on to say:

This is a new era of music where things like that can happen. We all have access to the internet with the picture and the record, I guess. I don't know. I obviously don't know Nas and I don't know Kanye West. I don't know if they have a team working on this stuff. I hate to go around accusing people of stuff. I kind of let the public run with that, you know what I mean?

At the end of the day I don't have any hard feelings. It could also be creative-type minds working alike. If anything, I would like to work with the guys and be running around with them instead. Usually things don't strike in the same place three times, but the internet is new. It's a weird situation.

Head to Complex and check out the entire interview.

Source: Complex