Kanye West

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Lore & Background

In 2016, Kanye West expressed his wish to produce an album by Nas, seemingly promising Barack Obama that he would achieve this. In April 2018, Kanye West announced that he was producing Nas' new album with a release date of June 15, 2018. West later released an incomplete track listing of the five albums he was working on, revealing the Nas track "Everything". On June 12, West revealed a full tentative tracklist for the album, while the album title and cover art was revealed on June 14, a day before release. A listening party for the album took place on June 14, 2018, in Queensbridge, New York City and was streamed via Mass Appeal's YouTube channel. The album features guest appearances from Kanye West, Puff Daddy, 070 Shake, Tony Williams, and The-Dream.

In Their Own Story

In the spring of 2018, Kanye West gathered a rotating cast of producers and artists at a remote Wyoming studio for a series of rapid-fire album sessions. Nas, who hadn't released an album in six years since *Life Is Good* (2012), was the fourth artist in the lineup. The sessions produced a seven-track album, *Nasir*, that West executive produced. Nas later reflected on the process: "I don't know what went wrong," Nas began. "I like 'Cops Shot the Kid', I like 'Adam and Eve'. I like the music in 'Simple Things'. It's a short album. We just didn't get enough time. I wish we'd worked on it more." The album rose to No. 5 on the Billboard 200 and No. 16 on the UK Albums chart, debuting with 77,000 album-equivalent units, of which 49,000 were pure album sales.

Reader's Guide

Kanye West's production on *Nasir* is characterized by lavish, triumphant beats that critics praised on songs such as "White Label" and "Cops Shot the Kid." The album samples a wide range of sources: "Cops Shot the Kid" contains samples of "Children's Story" by Slick Rick and dialogue from *Wattstax* spoken by Richard Pryor; "Adam and Eve" samples "Gole Yakh" by Kourosh Yaghmaei and dialogue from *The Godfather Part II* spoken by Al Pacino; "Everything" samples "Space Time Girl" by The Heliocentrics. West's production team included Mike Dean (mixing on tracks 1, 3, 5), Andrew Dawson (mixing on tracks 2, 4, 6, 7), and Jess Jackson (mixing on tracks 1, 3, 5). The album received mixed reviews, with a Metacritic score of 58 based on 16 reviews, and critics noting contradictions between Nas's political awareness and the album's failure to address domestic violence allegations.

Did You Know?

• Kanye West produced *Nasir* as the fourth of five seven-track albums in his 'Wyoming Sessions', released weekly in June 2018.
• West expressed his wish to produce a Nas album in 2016, seemingly promising Barack Obama he would achieve this.
• The album's listening party was held on June 14, 2018, in Queensbridge, New York City, and streamed via Mass Appeal's YouTube channel.
• Nas later said of the album: 'We just didn't get enough time. I wish we'd worked on it more.'
• The track 'Cops Shot the Kid' samples Slick Rick's 'Children's Story' and Richard Pryor dialogue from *Wattstax*.