Today (Sept. 12), Nas took to social media to announce his new album, Magic 3, his sixth consecutive album with producer Hit-Boy. As a previous post seemed to suggest, the joint LP could be the last chapter in an iconic run from the two since the Grammy-winning King’s Disease made landfall in 2020. Notably, Magic 3 will arrive this Thursday (Sept. 14), which also marks Nas’ 50th birthday.

It’s only been two months since the Queensbridge icon and his Cali counterpart liberated Magic 2, an 11-song offering with a couple of appearances from 21 Savage and 50 Cent. That project debuted within the top 20 of Billboard‘s Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums chart.

As previously reported by REVOLT, Nas spoke on working with Hit-Boy and its profound benefits in regard to inspiration and creativity in the studio.

“He was able to play music for me that would conjure up these thoughts and these feelings, and I give it to him, man. He made it easy. It was easy to work with him, and he really just cared about music and cared about making it happen in real time,” he explained about the SURF OR DROWN beatsmith to Apple Music’s Zane Lowe. “I would tell him stories of things and he’d say, ‘Well, you might as well say that on the mic.’ When? ‘When? Now.’ Really? Well, if I said it like this, how you like it? ‘That’s dope. Say that, man.'”

He continued, “Just the encouragement that he gave me was really good. It was really something that I needed, especially because he’s younger than me and he’s recording records for multiple artists. In the studio, he’s got this room working, he’s got that room, and I’m meeting different artists and he’s doing it, but he’s still focused on me, but he’s still working.”