Nas and Eminem, widely regarded as two of the greatest rappers ever, almost worked together on the former’s 2012 album Life Is Good.
In a sit-down with Joe Budden alongside DJ Premier to promote their long-awaited joint project Light-Years, Nas revealed that he attempted to feature Em on his single “Daughters,” but the Detroit native politely declined the offer.
“Every record I do is not a battle. I remember I sent the song ‘Daughters’ to Eminem and at the time he had spent so much time speaking on daughters, he was like, ‘Thank you, but I told my daughter I’m not gonna do anymore songs directly about daughters at the moment because it’s a sensitive issue with all the music I’ve put out,’” he said, alluding to songs like “Mockingbird” and “Hailie’s Song.”
“I think [his] message was like, ‘Thank you ’cause most people want to do songs where they’re battling me on a record. It was refreshing to get a record where you’re not coming for me.’”
Nas and Eminem have remarkanly only worked together twice. They first linked up on “The Cross,” an Eminem-produced track from Nas’ 2002 album God’s Son.
But their first time actually trading bars on the same track came just four years ago on “EPMD 2,” off Nas and Hit-Boy‘s King’s Disease II.
The pair’s lack of collaborations does not mean a lack of respect and admiration between them, though.
In a 2023 interview with The New York Times, Eminem opened up about the impact that Nas’ landmark 1994 debut Illmatic had on him when he was honing his craft as an MC.
“I remember The Source gave Illmatic five mics [a perfect score],” Em said. “I already knew I liked Nas from ‘Live at the Barbeque’ with Main Source because his verse on that is one of the most classic verses in hip hop of all time. But I was like, ‘Five mics, though? Let me see what this is.’
“And when I put it on, ‘And be prosperous, whough we live dangerous / Cops could just arrest me/Blamin’ us, we’re held like hostages.’ He was going in and outside of the rhyme scheme, internal rhymes. That album had me in a slump, too. I know the album front to back.”
