Nas And Eminem Almost Collaborated On A “Daughters” Remix

Can you imagine another pair of Hip-hop’s finest going bar for bar on one track? It turns out this almost became a reality on one of Nas‘ songs until Eminem passed on the idea.

Although the Queensbridge native mentioned the missed opportunity in our 2012 interview, he shared a bit more insight into how their conversation went down. In a recent interview on The Joe Budden Podcast, alongside Light-Years collaborator DJ Premier, Nas revealed that Eminem respectfully declined his invitation to hop on the remix of his Life is Good track, “Daughters.”

“I remember I had sent this song ‘Daughters’ to Eminem, and at the time, he had spent so much time speaking on daughters,” he recalled. “He was like, ‘Thank you, but I’m not going to.’ I’m not doing any more songs directly about daughters at the moment because that’s a sensitive issue with all the music I put out. He was like, I think the message was like, ‘Thank you, ’cause most people want to do songs where they’re battling me on a record. It was refreshing to get a record where you’re not coming for me.’”

While working on Life Is Good, Nas also reached out to Jay-Z for a feature, but schedule conflicts got in the way. Although this would’ve been Eminem and Nas’ first collaboration, the two appeared on the same track, “EPMD 2,” on Nas and Hit-Boy‘s King’s Disease II.

Nas and DJ Premier finally released their long-awaited collaborative album, Light-Years, on December 12. The fifteen-track LP features guest appearances from the likes of the Steve Miller Band and, of course, The Firm’s very own AZ.

Watch the rest of Nas and DJ Premier’s sitdown with Joe Budden above. In the interview, they talk about fatherhood, hip-hop of yesteryear versus today, and more.