17 years after their first and only song off the timeless Illmatic, Pete Rock has disclosed plans to release a full collaboration album with Nas this year.
The surprise announcement came when Rock became an impromptu guest on the Conspiracy Worldwide Radio podcast. Last year, the legendary producer confirmed that he has beat placements on Nas’ forthcoming Lost Tapes 2. However, Rock stated he and Nas have targeted 2011 for a full-length LP.
“Yeah, that’s coming later on this year,” Rock verified.
In addition to the proposed Nas project, Pete Rock two beat placements on Jay-Z and Kanye West’s Watch the Throne, and collaboration albums with DJ Premier and Smif N Wessun.
At press time, there is no confirmed date on the Nas album.
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For those who can’t believe what you just read, you can hear Pete Rock’s portion of the podcast starting at the 45:14 mark of this link. Don’t worry, you’re not alone in your disbelief. You’d think something as monumental as this would have both men screaming from the heavens with press release blasts to every major Hip-Hop outlet. The fact that it hasn’t leads to me to deduct Pete may have misheard the question. I think it’s more realistic that we’ll get 2-3 songs on Nas’ next solo instead of a whole album. I don’t think anyone would have any complaints about that considering its been 17 years since they dropped “The World Is Yours.”
But if they indeed drop a full album, it’ll likely be one of the best releases of 2011.
Beats, Boxing and Mayhem 
Early Christmas or unrealistic wish list? 2 or 3 solid tracks on a Nas project would’ve been plenty. Don’t wanna get my hopes up too high for this one.