Hip-hop rapper, Nas finally won his first Grammy on Sunday after 13 nominations across more than two decades.
He was honoured for his 13th studio album, King’s Disease, to claim Best Rap Album over D Smoke (Black Habits), Jay Electronica (A Written Testimony), Freddie Gibbs and the Alchemist (Alfredo), and Royce 5’9″ (The Allegory).
King’s Disease debuted within the top 10 when it was released in August last year, making it Nas’ fourteenth top-ten album in the United States.
In an interview with British music magazine NME in November, Nas said that he had attempted to create a record similar to James Brown’s 1968 classic “Say It Loud ― I’m Black and I’m Proud” and said it was necessary for Black artists to make similar anthems because of “the foot on our necks.”
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“We’re in a world right now where we’re facing some really terrible racist practices, and there are people who don’t realize it’s happening,” Nas said. “So these records were made to remind us that we are God’s creation, just like every white man, every Asian brother and everyone else.”
Nas was first nominated for a Grammy in 1996 in the Best Rap Solo Performance category for “If I Ruled the World,” a single with Lauryn Hill from his second album, “It Was Written.”