Nas shared his admiration for Kendrick Lamar during a new interview with Rolling Stone published Tuesday. The rap legend reflected on Lamar’s impact after writer Andre Gee compared his 2006 track “Hip Hop Is Dead” to Lamar’s recent single “Watch the Party Die.”
“We all as artists love this art form and have our opinions on it. Kendrick is one of the brightest stars we’ve ever seen, and I don’t only mean superstar, I mean like the North Star — I think he’s one of those,” Nas said. “Out of all the artists in this business, there’s some that’s not here for the art. When we see those people damaging it, you’re hurting the future of the art. So I think artists like Kendrick are going to speak out.”
Nas continued, noting that hip-hop’s strength depends on artists who care about its legacy. “It’s just been in the conversation naturally, like any sport you want to thrive. You don’t want the NBA to start slowing down. You want it to thrive. The ball players want it to thrive. Sometimes it’ll take Kendrick to remind us where we are lacking.”
Elsewhere in the interview, Nas addressed how fans continue to bring up his past feud with Jay-Z after his recent business victory in New York. The Queens native recently won a bid for a casino license in his hometown, while Jay-Z and Roc Nation’s Times Square proposal was rejected.
“It’s just a thing that some people are going to talk about,” Nas said. “No one has control over things like that. I still study Rakim and Big Daddy Kane. Some rap fans just like to go off on those things from time to time. That’s it.”
