Nas Salutes Kendrick Lamar After Shoutout On New Album, “GNX”

Nas gave a shoutout to Kendrick Lamar and his new album, GNX, on Instagram on Saturday afternoon. On the intro track to the project, “wacced out murals,” Lamar mentions the legendary rapper while reflecting on the backlash he faced from Lil Wayne over landing a headlining gig at the Super Bowl. He rapped: “I used to bump ‘Tha Carter 3’, I held my Rollie chain proud. Irony, I think my hard work let Lil Wayne down… Got the Super Bowl and Nas the only one congratulate me, all these n****s agitated I’m just glad it’s on they faces.”

“Always inspired by my brother KL,” Nas responded on Instagram. “Keeping the essence of this sh*t alive and at the forefront. Salute King!” Fans in the comments section were stoked to see the interaction. “Love seeing an OG show flowers to the next generation, hope it continues with these rappers under 30 that deserve the same love!!!!” one user wrote. Another added: “I just listened to this album with open ears and this is a really good album and the ppl that’s saying it’s ass are lying to themselves.”

Lil Wayne also seemingly responded to the same lyric on X (formerly Twitter), writing: “Man wtf I do?! I just be chillin & dey still kome 4 my head. Let’s not take kindness for weakness. Let this giant sleep. I beg u all. No one really wants destruction, not even me but I shall destroy if disturbed. On me. Love.”

Lamar dropped GNX as his sixth studio album on Friday afternoon by complete surprise. He worked with Sounwave, Jack Antonoff, Mustard, SZA, Roddy Ricch, and more artists on the project. Check out Nas’ response to Kendrick Lamar below.