Nas x DJ Premier: Light-Years (2025) – Album Review

Rap icons Nas and DJ Premier coalesce to deliver a serious album that undoubtedly borrows from the past but also retains a modern flavour.

A moment that many thought would never come. Announced in 2006, hinted at in 2022, and properly announced in November 2025, Light-Years (2025) has finally been delivered to the Hip-Hop world. Anticipation was unsurprisingly high, but it is unlikely that most people would have been blindsided by the sound of the album. For many, the content of Light-Years (2025) was largely what was expected. Nas’ prolific wordplay and substantive lyrics, and DJ Premier’s signature record scratches, loops, and unmistakable Hip-Hop sound. The challenge was now whether Nas and Preemo could prove that a collaboration between themselves was necessary in 2025, a bigger challenge now more than ever considering that the album finally dropped nearly two decades after it was originally announced. 

Any suggestion, however, that Nas and DJ Premier are running out of gas is wiped out on the intro track ‘My Life Is Real’. A triumphant anthem where Nas celebrates his successful career while also bragging about the relevance that he has been able to maintain over the course of his three-decade-long career. This uplifting song is set to boisterous and spacey keys that really augment that extra-terrestrial atmosphere of the song. The intergalactic vibes continue on the song ‘Writers’, where the smooth bass strings play a key role in the flow of the song. Lyrically, Nas is in a flower-giving mood as he pays respect to the importance of graffiti writers. Nas was not a graffiti writer himself, but he acknowledges how pertinent graffiti writing culture has been to Hip-Hop with lines like “Courageous, bravest, street creators, they are synonymous with DJs, rappers, and breakers”. The tone of Nas on this track is wholesome as he assumes a sort of mentorship role, especially evident right at the end of the song, where he tells aspiring graffiti writers to “keep bombing” (slang for working). 

Nas continues to spread the love on ‘Bouquet (To The Ladies)’, which serves as another praise-giving endeavour for female Hip-Hop figures, past and present. The late-night feel to the production, with horns and soft bass grooves platform Nas’ confident and affectionate delivery nicely. The cherry on the cake is Nas devoting the entirety of the second half of the song to listing the names of every female rapper he could think of, from Latto to Rapsody to Queen Latifah. ‘Shine Together’ is another song that celebrates upliftment and collaboration as Nas delivers similar sentiments to those of The Notorious B.I.G.’s lyrics “we might as well shine together”. Nas offers a poignant analogy to cement his point, describing how “a school of fish follows the shark to eat its leftovers, and when that shark is hungry again, it ups the death total”. Nas deviates from this selfish mentality, instead proclaiming that “a boss is who learn to get dough, then he show you”. This encouraging message is delivered over more shimmering keys and nice bass riffs. 

It would not be a Nas album without some songs that feel distinctly New York, and he ensures that Light-Years (2025) has its fair share. ‘GiT Ready’ is a track that immediately makes you feel as though you have been transported to the busy streets of New York City with its groovy bass, cowbells, and typically expert DJ Premier sampling. On this song, Nas provides a guide to his life now as a successful businessman and investor, cleverly bragging about how he turned “Ether to Ethereum”, referencing his legendary Jay-Z diss-track ‘Ether’ and his fruitful endeavours within the world of cryptocurrency. Nas and DJ Premier attempt to recapture the good old days on ‘NY State of Mind, Pt. 3’, the trilogy of arguably the greatest Hip-Hop song ever. Billy Joel’s own ‘New York State of Mind’ is sampled at the beginning, and the song finally begins with heavy drums and an overall menacing atmosphere, resulting in a sound akin to that of a boss fight. Nas’ verses are typically engaging, delivering an advertisement of affluent life in New York, but the impact of his verses suffers from the slow tempo of the beat. A quicker tempo would have elevated the song. 

On the topic of underwhelming production, ‘Junkie’ also features one of the weaker beats on the album, with a tempo similar to ‘NY State of Mind, Pt. 3’ and repetitive string stabs that quickly become annoying. Thankfully, Nas does not let this hinder his rapping as he ruminates on Hip-Hop’s tendency to keep calling him back like an addiction he cannot give up. A cool effect in the song is Nas’ vocals being pitched down slightly, as if reinforcing the point that he seems to always find himself buried within the confines of Hip-Hop. This feeling of being submerged within Hip-Hop is perfectly captured on the short and sweet ‘Pause Tapes’, where Nas delivers a forensic account of how he used to pause, rewind, and play tapes to loop samples for beats. It is only appropriate that Nas raps on this song over a simple pause tape beat. 

Like Illmatic (1994), the only rapped feature on Light-Years (2025) is provided by long-time collaborator AZ on ‘My Story Your Story’, one of the best songs on the album, where Nas and AZ essentially engage in lyrical sparring over a Lofi beat that sounds like it could have been made by The Alchemist. AZ is still rapping with the same exuberance that he had on the Illmatic (1994) song ‘Life’s a Bitch’, which is refreshing when considering that his verse on that song was what earned him his first major record label contract. 

The Light-Years (2025) closer ‘3rd Childhood’ is more subdued than ‘My Life is Real’, but this is by no means a detriment to the song’s quality, as the Lofi instrumental is executed nicely (with a killer snare drum included!). Nas ends the album how one would expect him to, with a worthwhile message to take away from the album. The message he decides to deliver is one of security, essentially preaching that an important aspect of growing up is embracing how you feel, not just what your age is. Some things, whether that be fashion choices, music tastes, and certain lifestyle habits, are worth carrying with you into older age, and it is the maintenance of this belief that has resulted in Nas experiencing a 3rd childhood of sorts. Age is inevitable, but internal change is almost always optional.

Light-Years (2025) was worth the wait. Nas proves on this album that his rapping is still essential to contemporary Hip-Hop, while DJ Premier unsurprisingly provides a diverse palette of beats that only complement and uplift Nas’ messaging on the majority of songs on this album. If the two men decide to work together again, hopefully, the next album is not light-years away. 

Words by Ian Mahop