For the past few years, rap legend Nas and big-deal producer Hit-Boy have been on a serious run together. Hit-Boy has the primary producer on records from artists like Big Sean, Benny The Butcher, and Musiq Soulchild, and he’s also produced four strikingly consistent Nas albums since 2020; the most recent, King’s Disease III, came out this past November. Hit-Boy raps, too, and he’ll release his solo album Surf Or Drown tomorrow. (He just announced it earlier this week.) Today, Hit-Boy has shared his video for the Nas collab “The Tide.”

Here’s my big takeaway from “The Tide”: Hit-Boy can really rap! I already knew that, but this song makes it impossible to ignore. On “The Tide,” Hit-Boy trades off bars with a reinvigorated Nas, and he absolutely holds his own: “The times that we livin’ in, it could get frightenin’/ Imagine seein’ Tupac body on IG.” Hit-Boy produced the swirling soul-sample beat, and the mid-track beat switch-up lands hard. Watch the video below.

Hit-Boy’s Surf Or Drown is out tomorrow on Surf Club, and it also features Hit-Boy’s previously-released tracks with Curren$y, Avelino, and the Alchemist.