Nas Reveals How Mass Appeal Cooked Up Their Epic Hip Hop 50 Celebration

Nas and his record label have led the charge in recognizing Hip-Hop's 50th anniversary.

On Friday, August 4, Billboard revealed its latest cover story featuring the Queensbridge legend. During his extensive conversation with the magazine's Hip-Hop Editor Carl Lamarre, both Nasir and Mass Appeal co-founder Peter Bittenbender revealed the moment when they realized they needed to begin focusing their energy on celebrating Hip-Hop's 50th birthday.

“For a couple of years, we’ve been talking about this day coming,” Nas explained. “It’s great to see everything happening, too. You see some of the pioneers outside more and being celebrated."

"Everybody’s gathering around this whole moment to make the world know not to sweep this under the rug," he added. "This is real.”

Nas and Mass Appeal have spent the past five years preparing for the 50th anniversary of Hip-Hop. The Grammy award-winning rapper was very hands on throughout the process of planning everything from the upcoming Hip Hop 50 Live show at Yankee Stadium to Biz Markie's new documentary, All Up In The Biz. The concert and the film, which are both produced by Mass Appeal, will debut on August 11.

In addition to all the festivities and tributes, Nas also managed to find the time to cook up his last five albums, the King's Disease trilogy and both Magic albums, with his go-to producer Hit-Boy. He also performed his first headlining show at Madison Square Garden, and celebrated the release of his custom-made Hennessy bottle during his Magic 2 album release party.

Read the entire cover story now and watch his interview with Billboard below.