Nas isn’t resting on his laurels after achieving new successes in his career. After winning Best Rap Album at the 2021 Grammy Awards, he performed at the ceremony for the first time at this year’s awards, delivering a career retrospective via a medley of hits spanning the past 25 years. Despite reaching these new plateaus, he’s not taking any time off to celebrate, dropping a new video for the song “Ugly” from his and Hit-Boy’s third joint project, Magic.
Produced by ASAP Rocky’s media company AWGE, the abstract, black-and-white video is pieced together from archival footage taken around the city of New York, spliced in with shots of Nas rapping the lyrics of the song in the back of a limo with a female companion. The video ends with a quote from Martin Luther King, Jr.: “Let us realize the arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice.”
Despite Magic being less than five months old, Nas and Hit-Boy are already hard at work on their third installment of the King’s Disease series, which has been credited by fans as rejuvenating Nas’ public perception. Nas is also preparing to embark on the NY State Of Mind Tour with Wu-Tang Clan beginning late this summer.
Watch Nas and Hit-Boy’s “Ugly” video above.