Hip-hop legend Nas wins first Grammy after 13 nominations and 25 years

Hip-hop conductor Nas finally won his first Grammy on Sunday, after 13 nominations in more than two decades.

The 47-year-old rapper from the Queens of New York won the Best Rap Album for his 13th album, “King’s Disease”.

The album topped D Smoke’s “Black Habits”, Jay Electronica’s “A Written Testimony”, Freddie Gibbs & The Alchemist’s “Alfredo” and Royce’s 5′9 “The Allegory”.

“King’s Disease”, released on August 21, was topped by the single “Ultra Black”, an unapologetic celebration of black culture in America. In an interview with British music magazine NME in November, Nas said he tried to create a record similar to James Brown’s 1968 classic “Say It Loud – I’m Black and I’m Proud” and said it was necessary for black artists make similar hymns because of the “foot on our necks”.

“We are in a world now where we are facing some really terrible racist practices, and there are people who don’t realize that this is happening,” said Nas. “So these records were made to remind us that we are a creation of God, just like every white man, every Asian brother and everyone else.”

Nas was first nominated for a Grammy in 1996 in the Best Rap Solo Performance category for “If I Ruled the World”, a single with Lauryn Hill from his second album, “It Was Written”.

Over the next 25 years, Nas experienced a public feud with fellow New York rapper Jay-Z, a marriage and divorce with R&B star Kelis and 13 Grammy nominations – most recently in 2013 for his 11th album, “Life Is Good ”.

With his 14th nomination, Nas – who has long been listed as one of the most skilful hip-hop MCs of all time since his 1994 debut album, “Illmatic” – finally got his due. Fans were quick to celebrate their victory on Twitter, although some argued that Nas should have won a Grammy years ago.

An exciting video in which the executive producer of “King’s Disease” Hit-Boy gasped after being notified of the victory, also went viral, accumulating tens of thousands of views on Instagram. The producer has already won Grammys for albums with Kanye West and Jay-Z in 2013 and Nipsey Hussle in 2020, and tweeted that his victory with Nas left him “motivated to work harder”.