Shaq Releases First-Ever Jay-Z, Nas Collab Recorded 28 Years Ago

NBA Hall of Famer and moonlighting MC Shaquille O’Neal has officially released the first-ever Jay-Z and Nas collaboration on the reissue of his 1996 album You Can’t Stop the Reign.

Shaq Officially Puts First Jay-Z and Nas Collab on Album Re-Release

After teasing fans with the record on Thursday (June 27), Shaq followed through on Friday (June 28) by delivering an updated version of his third studio album. The rerelease has the track “No Love Lost” featuring Jay-Z, Nas and Lord Tariq. The track marks the first-ever time Hov and Esco appeared on a song together.

On the Trackmasters-produced banger, which can be heard below, the then-burgeoning rappers are sharp with the bars as it would have been recorded around the time Jigga put out his debut album Reasonable Doubt, and Nas was on the heels of his sophomore LP It Was Written.

“Fo’ sho’, everything’s for dough now/The flow, y’all gotta pay a little mo’ now,” Hov spits. “It’s platinum, nowadays we put the gold down/We stepped it up, y’all don’t ever wanna showdown/Get wetted up by the sleeve that leave the bezel out/Y’all don’t like it, sue me, I’ll settled out/Ghettoed out, in the vehicle bent/These days I mellowed out.”

Shaq and Tariq slide on beat. Mid-90s Nas goes in as well. “I spent nights on corners, see the crack, cop my first smack/No longer scared to pump with y’all pump/Now I burst back, it hurts that,” Nas raps. “Don’t see cream can make my purse fat/Without the benefits of a doubt, I hit the hearse black/But curse that, try to see Nas was your worst match/Blowing like Tahiti, throw off NYPD, am I greedy?/Like I mean E.D. see me in the fly/Selena Gibby frames in a beanie.”

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The History of “No Love Lost”

The song sans Nas originally appeared on the You Can’t Stop the Reign album when it debuted in November of 1996. The version with Nas appeared on the DJ Clue mixtape Fall Pt. 1 the same year the album version was released. It was later circulated on music file-sharing services.

Shaq revealed during an interview on the Drink Champs Podcast in 2022 that he couldn’t end up clearing Nas’ verse. “I didn’t take it personal because, again, me being in the studio with Nas, I’m happy,” Shaq said. Now, it is appearing on DSPs for the first time.

Read More: Nas Is Bringing the Classic Hip-Hop Film Beat Street to Broadway

Check out Jay-Z and Nas’ first collaboration on Shaq’s “No Love Lost” with Lord Tariq below.

Stream Shaq’s “No Love Lost” Featuring Jay-Z, Nas and Lord Tariq