Yesterday (March 2), Nas announced on social media that he and Wu-Tang Clan are expanding worldwide on the “N.Y. State of Mind Tour.” The Live Nation-produced event will span just over four months and take place in more than six countries. It will kick off on May 9 in Auckland, New Zealand at Spark Arena and close out on Oct. 22 at Yaamava’ Theater in Highland, CA. The expansion announcement comes on the heels of the sold-out nationwide and co-headlined 2022 “N.Y. State of Mind Tour” run that hit over 25 cities last year. It received a nomination for Pollstar’s 2022 Hip Hop Tour of The Year.
Nas recently sat down with GQ and spoke about his 1996 sophomore LP, It Was Written, and how fellow New Yorker, the late Notorious B.I.G., influenced it. “These dudes didn’t want me to sell records,” the Queensbridge artist stated. “They wanted me to stay on an underground level, and I understand what they mean a little bit. But at the same time, Biggie made it different, where you can’t just be the hot dude that they liked from New York to Connecticut to Virginia. You got to hit the mainstream. You got to touch the world.”
On March 1, a day before his global tour announcement, Nas shared a visual to “30,” which essentially celebrated his iconic career. The track itself is from King’s Disease III, a project the 49-year-old New York native released with Hit-Boy back in November 2022.
Considered one of the greatest hip hop groups of all time, Wu-Tang Clan was formed in 1993 and consisted of RZA, GZA, Method Man, Raekwon, Ghostface Killah, Inspectah Deck, U-God, Masta Killa, and the late Ol’ Dirty Bastard. On Sept. 4, 2019, Hulu premiered the first season of an American biographical drama about the group titled “Wu-Tang: An American Saga.” The series has since gone on to have two additional seasons, with the third and final season coming last month. The subsequent episodes are currently available to stream on the platform every Wednesday at 3 a.m. ET.
Learn more about the tour here.