Nas announces Illmatic 30th anniversary tour of UK and Europe

Rapper will play four shows across Britain, including a stop at the Royal Albert Hall

Nas performing in Los Angeles in 2014 (Noel Vasquez/Getty Images for Hennessy)

Nas has announced a new UK and European tour to mark the 30th anniversary of his groundbreaking debut album Illmatic.

The 50-year-old rapper will perform Illmatic, which he released at the age of 20, in full.

Register below to buy advance tickets in the presale.

The 15-date tour will begin in Finland in October before arriving in Britain on 10 November for shows in Manchester, Edinburgh, Wolverhampton and London.

The platinum-certified album includes classic Nas tracks such as “N.Y State of Mind”, “Halftime”, “The World Is Yours” and “It Ain’t Hard to Tell” and is regularly cited as one of the most important and influential records in rap history.

In 2021, The Independent’s Sam Moore wrote: “As listeners of Illmatic and the rest of his discography know, Nas was always an old head with a baby face, more philosopher than hustler – but he is also a linguistic genius, capable of bending words, rhymes and syllables at will.”

The cover of Nas’ 1994 debut album ‘Illmatic’

The new tour will begin at the House of Culture in Helsinki, Finland on 22 October. It will then call at B-K in Stockholm, Sweden (24 October), Kb Hallen in Copenhagen, Denmark (25 October), the Palladium in Cologne, Germany(27 October), Fabrique in Milan, Italy (30 October) and Halle 622 in Zurich, Switzerland on 31 October.

In November, Nas will play the Gasometer in Vienna, Austria (2 November), the Uber Eats Music Hall in Berlin, Germany (3 November), AFAS Live in Amsterdam, the Netherlands (5 November), Le Zenith in Paris, France (7 November) and Stadthalle Offenbach in Offenbach, Germany on 8 November.

In the UK, Nas will appear at the O2 Victoria Warehouse in Manchester (10 November), Usher Hall, Edinburgh (11 November), University Wolverhampton at the Civic Hall, Wolverhampton (14 November) and finally the Royal Albert Hall in London on 15 November.

Fans can register here to buy tickets in the presale, which begins at 10am BST on Tuesday 23 April.

General tickets go on sale at 10am BST on Thursday 25 April.

In a five-star review of Nas’ 2021 album King’s Disease 2, The Independent’s Annabel Nugent wrote: “While most of today’s prominent rappers were not yet born when a 20-year-old Nasir Jones was coming up in New York City, you’d be hard-pressed to find one that doesn’t cite his 1994 benchmark debut Illmatic as an inspiration. A wordsmith, revered elder statesman, teacher, storyteller: the legend around Nas is all-encompassing.”