AZ Featuring Nas The Essence for Throwback Thursday

AZ is one of the best rappers when it comes to his pen game. AZ first hit the scene with his classic verse from Life’s A Bitch off Illmatic from Nas. About a year and half later, he dropped his debut joint Do or Die. We all consider it a classic and on the album he and Nas reunited for Mo Money, Mo Murder. A couple years later, they formed the Firm with Nature and Foxy Brown to drop an album. While the album had a couple of good joints it was viewed as a disappointed and not living up to the hype. Nas and AZ teamed up a couple more times on each other’s projects. Nas appearing on Pieces of Man and AZ on the Stillmatic joint.

Over the years, many of us hip hop heads wanted a joint album from the two. Jay-Z and Kanye did the Watch the Throne project, and we wanted something similar. In 2002, AZ returned with his fourth studio album called Aziatic. Aziatic went gold and Nas was the only major feature on the album. They teamed together on the track called The Essence. The Essence was nominated for a Grammy for Best Rap Performance by A Duo Or Group. It’s another classic track with the two legends as it’s the closet we’ll get to an album. Aziatic was a great album also and one you should check out if you haven’t. Check out the Essence for my Throwback Thursday up above for those who have yet to listen to it. Below is the track listing and stream link for the Aziatic album.