Nas Discusses His Absence on Jay-Z, Raekwon Projects

It's been near impossible to walk outside in New York City for the past few weeks without hearing the voices of Jay-Z and Raekwon floating from car stereos every 30 seconds. 'Blueprint 3' and 'Only Built 4 Cuban Linx 2' have both had a major impact and certainly present different takes on the future of hip-hop, yet they were supposed to have one (big) thing in common: Nas. Unfortunately, he didn't show up for either. The Queens-bred rapper finally, sort of, explained why in an interview with The Punchbowl Blog.

"That's really the first I'm hearing of that," responded Nas when asked about his failure to record any features. "I love what ... Jay-Z's album, Raekwon's album are my favorite rap albums. I think they have made hip-hop serious again and I'm just ... I feel great about the whole world now because of those two albums."

Hmm, that seems like some slippery politician style answer, right? He now has faith in the world because of Jay and Rae, but didn't want to deal with high profile guest spots on 'Empire State of Mind' (which references Nas' classic 'NY State of Mind') and 'Verbal Intercourse 2' (the sequel to one of the best tracks on the original 'Cuban Linx')? Raekwon has stated in numerous interviews that he reached out to Nas multiple times and didn't even get a call back. Something doesn't add up.

The interviewer pressed again for a specific answer on why he didn't get on the track with Jay and Alicia Keys. His response: "What's your next question?"

Check out the full interview. Nas also discusses Kanye's VMA stunt, his collaboration album with Damien Marley, new artists he admires and if he would be interested in becoming the president of Def Jam.