Nas & Hit-Boy Continue Their Run With ‘Magic 2’

Nas and Hit-Boy are back with the sequel to their 2021 project, Magic 2. On Friday (July 21), the hip-hop duo dropped their new effort, Magic 2, with features from 50 Cent (“Office Hours”) and 21 Savage (“One Mic, One Gun”). The latter track was released as a single earlier this year after 21 Savage apologized for questioning Nas’ relevancy on Twitter Spaces.

50 Cent, who had a rift with Nas in the 2000s, teased his Magic 2 appearance to Billboard in February. This week, he confirmed the news on Instagram, writing that the Queensbridge rapper “felt like it was time so it’s done.”

The 11-track album references Emmy-nominated actor Bokeem Woodbine and former NBA star-turned-business mogul Earvin “Magic” Johnson. On the spoken-word penultimate track “Pistols On Your Album Cover,” Nas recounts a fond memory of the late Tupac Shakur, sharing how he introduced the rapper and actor to Hennessy. Elsewhere on the track, Nas gives a salute to Shakur’s stepfather, Mutulu Shakur, who died earlier this month.

“I remember I put 2Pac onto that Henny,” he says on the track. “Howard University… Howard Homecoming, D.C…. He was like, ‘What’s this?!’… He drank that shit, though… Word… Crazy. Super hard.”