How “Legend Has It” Extends His Ongoing Love Letter To Hip-Hop

The streets of Queensbridge deserve all of the reward. There’s a lineage of rappers who’ve emerged from the neighborhood that helped create the muse of hip-hop, and some others who’ve continued to construct that basis up nicely into the 2020s.

Members of the Juice Crew, like MC Shan, Roxanne Shanté, Tragedy Khadafi, and Marley Marl, broke down the doorways, set new requirements, and launched a brand new era from that very same hood that may change the trajectory of hip-hop without end–and proceed to take action many years after their grand entrances. For instance, Tragedy Khadafi coined the time period “illmatic” on Marley Marl’s In Management, Quantity 1. Six years later, that time period was immortalized because of Nas’ seminal physique of labor that, to at the present time, stays the gold commonplace that hip-hop ought to aspire towards.

That degree of world-building, together with Mobb Deep’s sophomore album, The Notorious, gave outsiders an understanding of surviving the concrete jungle and a concrete understanding of the New York State of Thoughts and the survival ways wanted to see one other day.

It’s those self same survival ways that turned the 90s right into a battleground of ability and attain, the 2000s right into a measure of gross sales and radio, and the 2010s right into a vogue present. The 2020s, nonetheless, have seen hip-hop in one in every of its weirdest locations. After effervescent into the largest style on this planet by the late 2010s after which going through an implosion, because of the travesty that’s TikTok, 2025 has felt like a turning level. The truth is, some have even gone so far as describing it as one of many best years in hip-hop… ever.

Maybe there’s some advantage to that, however frankly, it’s exhausting to not give Nas his credit score in that capability as nicely. Since 2020, Nas has been on a mission to show that hip-hop is the furthest factor from a younger man’s sport. He matched the prolificity of the younger weapons with the King’s Illness and Magic sequence produced by Hit-Boy, each of which proved that he by no means misplaced his lyrical aptitude post-Nasir. Furthermore, they earned him his first Grammy of his profession.

Within the span of three years, he delivered six albums–an output that outpaced every other decade of his solo profession. In some ways, it felt like Nas’ difficult and exceeding any expectations he positioned on himself, particularly as he entered his 50s, established himself as a mogul, and watched the tides change in rap. And but, he’s been single-handedly serving to protect hip-hop tradition by and thru. Greater than something, these previous 5 years of his profession have been a potent and devoted show of hip-hop; a love letter that’s meant to honor and have fun the legends who need to scent their flowers whereas they’re right here.

Below Nas’s tutelage, Mass Enchantment’s revival has been the cornerstone of preserving hip-hop and guaranteeing it progresses. It was evident through the large marketing campaign of 2023 when the Hip Hop 50 celebrations lined up new music, documentaries, festivals, and extra to mark 5 many years since Kool Herc’s game-changing block celebration. What’s much more attention-grabbing is that Nas was virtually one of many few rappers of his stature who confirmed a willingness to take part in celebrating the milestone that yr.

Whether or not or not it was a worthwhile enterprise has but to be seen, however his efforts have been a labor of affection; not one thing that was meant to line his pockets. The truth is, you possibly can in all probability argue that Nas’s efforts with Mass Enchantment have been much more devoted towards guaranteeing that his influences, his friends, and the pillars who’ve been part of hip-hop for many years can receives a commission.

At this level, Nas has little to show on his personal, however the Legend Has It sequence has solely strengthened his philosophy and imaginative and prescient for hip-hop. Extra importantly, it’s emphasised that their legacy isn’t restricted to a single album or period. There’s nonetheless a requirement and a marketplace for artists who’ve been outlined and boxed in by their age.

And at a time when hip-hop’s saturation has been exhausted by viral clips, genre-bending melodies, and flash-in-the-pan successes–an embodiment of his grievances through the Hip-Hop Is Lifeless period–Nas is now empowering an period of hip-hop whose affect may be immediately traced into the heavyweights of at present: the Drakes, Kendricks, and J. Coles for positive but additionally, the Westside Gunn’s, Rome Streetz’s, Conway’s and Benny The Butcher’s, too.

This yr has already confirmed that hip-hop, in its purest kind, can thrive with out drama or flagrant advertising and marketing ways, and those that reap the reward aren’t simply in it for the immediate gratification of claiming their fave topped the charts or delivered a “traditional” after 2 spins. And the Legend Has It sequence has been the receipt that, even with out chart-topping efforts, artists like Ghostface Killah and Raekwon nonetheless matter. Slick Rick nonetheless issues. Mobb f*cking Deep nonetheless issues.

Most of the time, we see the legends of our period fizzle out or make a return with hopes of integrating into the present type of rap. However this string of releases, together with the upcoming posthumous album from Huge L and Nas and DJ Premier’s extremely anticipated joint mission, exhibits that the older era doesn’t must depend on nostalgia to struggle for relevance or combine themselves into the most recent traits that, frankly, are practically not possible to maintain up with, particularly if you’re aiming to make music that withstands the check of time.

In a matter of some months, we obtained album of the yr contenders from Raekwon, Ghostface Killah, and Mobb Deep, whose Infinite album actually felt like an embodiment of closure since Prodigy’s passing. Kicking off the marketing campaign was Slick Rick’s Victory, his first album in 26 years. Although not probably the most anticipated album on Mass Enchantment’s docket, it turned a agency reminder of the place this rap sh*t started and the way the remainder of the artists who adopted swimsuit possible wouldn’t be the place they’re with out him.

Subsequent week, Huge L’s Harlem’s Most interesting: Return of the King will even shut a loop because the Harlem MC’s remaining album. After which, now we have Cabin In The Sky, the primary album from De La Soul because the loss of life of Trugoy the Dove, which is about to reach later this yr. And to cap all of it off, Nas and DJ Premier will even launch a brand new album collectively.

Within the music economic system, the place the deaths of legends are instantly exploited and their legacies are tarnished for capital, these posthumous efforts have created a template on how the partnership between labels and these artists’ estates can work collectively to provide one thing that folks really need.

And for Nas, the Legend Has It sequence solely proves that his advocacy for hip-hop has been rooted in altruistic intentions to present again to hip-hop, the artists that he got here up with and those that got here earlier than them, in order that the very basis of hip-hop isn’t altered or watered down for the subsequent era. The children of at present won’t relate to what any 45+ yr outdated rapper has to say, nor ought to they, however understanding the previous will assist forge a path for the long run. That path could be constructed on uncertainty; we’ll by no means know the way hip-hop will evolve from right here. Nonetheless, it’s integral for its survival to stay linked to its roots.

Nas could be a good distance from the Queensbridge tasks that impressed Illmatic, but even when he’s within the boardrooms, he’s residing proof that hip-hop’s soul can evolve with out shedding contact with the place all of it started.