''Magic'' is the fourteenth studio album by American rapper

Nas Nas (born 1973) is the stage name of American rapper Nasir Jones. Nas, NaS, or NAS may also refer to: Aviation * Nasair, a low-cost airline carrier and subsidiary based in Eritrea * National Air Services, an airline in Saudi Arabia ** Nas Air ( ...

. It was released on December 24, 2021, through

Mass Appeal Records Mass Appeal Records is an American independent record label founded in 2014. The label is the music division of the Mass Appeal Media Group. In May 2014, it was announced that American rapper Nas was launching an indie label with Mass Appeal wi ...

. It serves as the third consecutive Nas album that is produced by

Hit-Boy Chauncey Alexander Hollis Jr. (born May 21, 1987), better known by his stage name Hit-Boy, is an American record producer, rapper, singer, and songwriter. In May 2011, he had signed a two-year deal with Kanye West's GOOD Music production branch. ...

, following ''

King's Disease ''King's Disease'' is the thirteenth studio album by American rapper Nas. It was released on August 21, 2020, through Mass Appeal Records and marketed by Universal Music Group. It succeeds his twelfth studio album, ''Nasir'', released two years p ...

'' and ''

King's Disease II ''King's Disease II'' is the thirteenth studio album by American rapper Nas. It was released on August 6, 2021, through Mass Appeal Records and marketed by The Orchard. Serving as a sequel to his 2020 album ''King's Disease'', it features guest ap ...

''. The album features guest appearances from

ASAP Rocky Rakim Athelaston Mayers (born October 3, 1988), known professionally as ASAP Rocky ( ; stylized as A$AP Rocky), is an American rapper, music producer and record executive. Born and raised in Harlem, he embarked on his musical career as a membe ...

and

DJ Premier Christopher Edward Martin (born March 21, 1966), known professionally as DJ Premier (also known as Preemo), is an American record producer and DJ. He is considered one of the greatest hip hop producers of all time. He was half of the hip hop duo ...

Background

On December 23, 2021, Nas announced the album, revealing the title, artwork, and tracklist. On the song "Ugly", Nas confirmed the third installment of ''King's Disease'', saying "KD3 on the way, this just to feed the buzz."

Critical reception

Metacritic Metacritic is a website that review aggregator, aggregates reviews of films, TV shows, music albums, video games and formerly, books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted arithmetic mean, weighted average). M ...

, which assigns a normalized rating out of 100 to reviews from professional publications, the album received an average score of 78, based on eight reviews, indicating widespread acclaim. In the review for

AllMusic AllMusic (previously known as All Music Guide and AMG) is an American online music database. It catalogs more than three million album entries and 30 million tracks, as well as information on musicians and bands. Initiated in 1991, the databas ...

, Fred Thomas felt that "The nine-track album Magic is cut from a similar cloth as the King's Disease installments that preceded it, but works as more of a stopgap release to tide over listeners as King's Disease III is being finalized. Hit-Boy's thick, straightforward, and somewhat retro-stylized production again offers as much of a voice here as Nas' fluid rhyming and wizened lyricism." Concluding the review for ''

HipHopDX ''HipHopDX'' is an online magazine of hip hop music criticism and news. The website's current president and publisher is Sharath Cherian and the Head Of Content is Jerry L. Barrow. ''HipHopDX'' is the flagship publication of Cheri Media Group. ...

'', Riley Wallace wrote, "despite how direct the lyricism is, it plays like two friends riffing in the studio and building off each other's energy; listeners can hear how much Nas loves what he's doing. The fact Hip Hop fans are getting appetizers of this caliber to hold us over until an inevitable third entry in the series is, in itself, Magic." Reviewing the album for '' Clash'', Niall Smith declared that, "On 'Magic', Nas seems as tuned into the culture as ever before, fulfilling his prophecy as rap leading lyricist, almost as if he's ushering in a new prime of his career. In the years to come, the '

' era ('Magic' in particular) will likely be ranked among the upper echelons of Nas' discography. With a solid foundation of beats, introspective lyricism and a sharp pen at his disposal, Nas might be the only rapper to have two releases in the best albums of the 2021 conversation. Magic." Pete Tosiello was more critical in his review for ''

Pitchfork A pitchfork (also a hay fork) is an agricultural tool with a long handle and two to five tines used to lift and pitch or throw loose material, such as hay, straw, manure, or leaves. The term is also applied colloquially, but inaccurately, to th ...

'', claiming that "You could knock Magic for being backward-facing, but then again, all of Nas's music is backward-facing. It's charming when he revisits his own gospels, but the nostalgia act would be easier to swallow if it weren't so resentful."

Commercial performance

''Magic'' debuted at number 27 on the US ''Billboard'' 200 with 22,000 album-equivalent units.

Track listing

All tracks written by

Nasir Jones Nas (born 1973) is the stage name of American rapper Nasir Jones. Nas, NaS, or NAS may also refer to: Aviation * Nasair, a low-cost airline carrier and subsidiary based in Eritrea * National Air Services, an airline in Saudi Arabia ** Nas Air (S ...

and Chauncey Hollis (

) and produced by Hit-Boy, except as noted.

Charts

References

{{Authority control 2021 albums Nas albums Albums produced by Hit-Boy Mass Appeal Records albums