Listen: Nas Unleashes an Instant Classic, “The Don”

We told you this week is all about hip hop, and the highlight might just be this brand new Nas track, “The Don.” Nas hasn’t sounded this good since, well, January, when he contributed a fiercely schematic opening verse to “Triple Beam Dreams,” off the Rick Ross mixtape “Rich Forever.” But there Nas was ruminative, even regretful; here he’s all gangsta id, reeling off rhymes about putting lead in pigment, picking women to “bless the king,” and this really swag Army jacket he’s got. (Read the lyrics over at Miss Info TV, if you like.) And the beat, created (in part) by none other than the late Heavy D? Boom bap of the highest order.