Nas Explains How Prince Shut Him Down For a Feature

by HHL JT

Prince had a complicated relationship with rap. The late legend dissed the whole genre in his track "Dead On it", singing "See the rapper's problem usually stems from being tone deaf / Pack the house then try to sing / There won't be no one left.”

But he also recorded quite a few tracks that could be considered rap or at least Hip Hop.

During Nas's recent appearance on Drink Champs, he talked about getting shot down for a Prince feature. But not because Prince didn't want to be on with a rapper.

"I sought him, because he came to my I Am... album release party," Nas said, adding Prince pulled up with a very attractive woman. "I pulled a N.O.R.E. move, I said, 'Yo, look man, let's do this. Let's do this song.' And he was like, 'Do you own your masters?' But he blew my shit, because I was like, 'I don't,'And I'm far from it, 'cause I owe this label like four, five albums. So I was like, 'Damn" 

"He dropped a jewel, he kind of helped me see the future and he was like, 'When you own your masters, give me a ring'".

Nas want on to say that he had a good relationship with Prince after that, and one time the Purple One even invited him on stage but he was too nervous to go up.

You can hear Nas talk Prince at the 49-minute mark.