Nas & Hit-Boy Announce Latest Collaborative Project ‘Magic 2’

Nas and Hit-Boy are still on a superstar run. After rumors surfaced this week that Nas was planning a new album, the rapper dropped the artwork for Magic 2, his latest project with Hit-Boy. The project follows 2021’s Magic and the duo’s King Disease trilogy, which began in 2020. The series’ first installment won the Queensbridge emcee his first Grammy Award in the Best Rap Album category in 2021.

Late last week, Nas posted a cryptic black-and-white clip of a rainstorm, followed by a follow-up on Monday (July 17). In the second video, a man is shown suspended from the sky by his ankles.

It also appears that 50 Cent’s planned feature with Nas will be on Magic 2, which the G-Unit member teased in his Billboard profile in February.

In May, Nas spoke to the Wall Street Journal, explaining that during studio sessions, Hit-Boy would occasionally ask him to re-use flows from his older material.

“Sometimes I’d be like, ‘But I did that, I did that already.’ And he’d say, ‘I know you, you’re going to go into a new cadence on it. Can you, please, just do this flow right here? I promise you’,” Nas said. The rapper even added that he was pessimistic that a KD3 would release, although the album would ultimately drop in November 2022. “In my head, I said, ‘There’s never going to be a ‘KD3.’ Why did I say this? I’m tired,” he said.

Along with Wu-Tang Clan, Nas is on the European leg of the second N.Y. State of Mind tour, which concludes on July 30 in Spain. Beginning in September, the legendary hip-hop acts – including De La Soul – will return to the U.S., performing in New York City, Nashville, Tampa, Brooklyn and more.