Nas and MF DOOM once had a legendary freestyle session that lasted almost an hour — but it was never caught on camera.
The cypher was detailed in an editorial penned by DOOM’s former assistant, Courtney Brown, and published on The Source in honor of the three-year anniversary of the late rapper’s death.
Brown, who worked with MF DOOM for many years after meeting him through Talib Kweli, recalled a number of fond moments she witnessed, including DOOM and Nas’ musical relationship.
“I moved to L.A. to assist him as he worked on DangerDOOM,” she explained. “During that time we spent a lot of time finding inspiration for that album and hanging out with my best friend at the time Kelis and her husband, rapper Nas.
“One day after a bougie L.A. dinner I convinced them to come back to my hotel room where DOOM put on some beats and Nas began freestyling. This lasted nearly an hour. DOOM had his Special Herbs CD on him and it was a historical moment not captured on camera or recorded.”
Despite never officially releasing a collaboration together, the two rap titans built a special bond prior to DOOM’s death in 2020.
During a 2012 interview with HipHopDX, the masked MC spoke about his relationship with Nas and briefly reflected on their aforementioned freestyle session.
“[Nas is] my brother,” he said. “My other brother from another mother. We got some work done, but we ain’t record it. He would freestyle and have fun and shit. We should have recorded some of the freestyles this n-gga did.
“He did one freestyle over this beat that I got, this Special Herbs beat that nobody used yet, right? The n-gga ripped the whole shit from beginning to end.
“That’s how you know who’s really nice,” he added. “The muthafucka’s nasty. Certain cats just have a natural knack for it. Nas is nice. That n-gga’s nasty, matter of fact.”
Their friendship wasn’t just limited to freestyling, though.
“I was at Nas’ pool party. That shit was dope,” DOOM said in another interview with SPIN that same year. “It was the day after, like it was still going on, so a real private thing.”
He added: “I was late — I had my girl or whatever, you know how the Villain works — but that was the flyest pool party. That shit was cool. I even brought a present, a painting I made, and just snuck it in there, put it up. That might be the only pool party I ever been to.”
