50 Cent originally met Nas back in the early 2000s after his 1999 song "How To Rob" met critical acclaim. And while that track put him on the map with multiple rap contemporaries, it was meeting Nas that stuck with 50 Cent long-term. The working relationship, which is now 24 years old, is still going strong, with Nas' upcoming album, Magic 2, featuring a Fiddy appearance. Nas, back in the day, tapped Fiddy to join him on tour after hearing "How To Rob."
During the tour, Fiddy realized just how much of a genius the NYC rapper was. During a recent XXL Magazine interview, he said, "[Nas] was ahead of us. What he had, and I was looking at it going, 'You gotta be careful' because he was smarter than the music he was releasing... He was smarter than things he was saying on the records." 50 Cent revealed that while his music was considering the current cultural environment, it did not reflect who Nas actually was as a person. "We’d be on the tour bus, and he'd be reading books and stuff."
Nas Surprised 50 Cent Back In The Day
Nas being a huge bookworm is something nobody would've guessed, including Fiddy. But now, the bookworm and the rapper-turned-actor/producer are collaborating again with "Office Hours." The song is featured on Magic 2, which releases on Friday. This marks the first time in twenty years that Nas and 50 Cent have appeared on a track together, with "Who U Rep With" and "Too Hot" coming out back in 2002.
"[Nas] felt like it was time, so it’s done," 50 Cent said on his Instagram earlier this week. He announced the collab and gave fans a potential taste of what to expect from Nas' latest album drop. The reason behind Nas bringing Fiddy on tour after "How To Rob" is found in the song lyrics. Back then, 50 Cent went after some of the hottest names in the rap game, including Jay-Z, DMX, and Diddy. That type of "raw" energy was exactly what Nas was looking for. The rest for Fiddy was history.