During a podcast interview, Nas said Prince opened his mind to the future of the music business all while shooting down his request for a feature.
Since Prince tragically passed away in 2016, dozens of artists have come out with timeless stories of his wit, wisdom and unmatched musical prowess.
Nas added to the catalog on Thursday during an interview on the famed Drink Champs podcast.
Nas is making the media rounds while he promotes his new album The Lost Tapes 2. Podcast hosts N.O.R.E. and DJ EFN peppered the rap legend with questions about his career, working with Kanye West and features he wished he could have gotten.
It took Nas a minute to think of a feature he missed out on, but the rapper thought back to an interaction with Prince that affected how he looked at the music industry. At his album release party for I Am… in 1999, Nas approached Prince about collaborating on a song.
“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,'” he said as the audience roared with laughter.
DJ EFN chimed in to note that Prince was known, and widely criticized during his time, for his insistence on owning his own masters. Prince is now seen as a pioneer in the music industry for his stance on masters, and his position becomes even more prescient as we watch major acts like Taylor Swift still struggle with music ownership.
