King's Disease III

On December 24, 2021, Nas surprise-released his fourteenth album Magic. On the song "Ugly", Nas confirmed the third installment of the King's Disease series was in the works with the lyrics "KD3 on the way, this just to feed the buzz." On the same day, following the release of the album, American record producer Hit-Boy announced via Twitter that he and Nas had begun working on a third King's Disease album.[2]

On October 18, 2022, Nas announced the album, along with its release date, with a promotional poster via his social media platforms.[3]

Professional ratings

Aggregate scores
Source	Rating
Metacritic	88/100[4]
Review scores
Source	Rating
Clash	8/10[5]
The Daily Telegraph	[6]
HipHopDX	4.1/5[7]
NME	[8]
Pitchfork	7.1/10[9]
The Scotsman	[10]
Slant Magazine	[11]

King's Disease III was met with widespread acclaim. At Metacritic, which assigns a normalized rating out of 100 to reviews from professional publications, the album has received an average score of 88 based on ten reviews, indicating universal acclaim.[4]

Reviewing the album for NME, Niall Smith claimed that, "With King’s Disease III, the New York rapper has put the seal on a strong album trilogy that proves that, three decades in, he's still a force to be reckoned with."[8]

King's Disease III debuted at number 10 on the US Billboard 200 with 29,000 album-equivalent units, making it Nas's 16th top-10 album on the chart (a record he shares with American rapper JAY-Z).[12] On November 18, 2022, King's Disease III debuted at number 48 on the UK Albums Chart[13] and number 2 on the UK Hip Hop and R&B Albums Chart.[14]

All tracks produced by Hit-Boy, except where noted.

Sample credits

• "Legit" contains a sample of "A Heart Is a House for Love" written by Tristin Sigerson, Davitt Sigerson, and Bob Thiele, as performed by Billy Valentine and The Dells from The Five Heartbeats.
• "Ghetto Reporter" contains a sample of "Just Us" performed by Richard Pryor.
• "Thun" contains a sample of "The Bridge Is Over" written and performed by DJ Scott La Rock & KRS-One under the musical group Boogie Down Productions.
• "Hood2Hood" contains an interpolation of "Da Butt" written by Marcus Miller and performed by group E.U..
• "Get Light" contains an interpolation of "Party and Bullshit" written by Easy Mo Bee, as performed by The Notorious B.I.G.
• "Reminisce" contains a sample of "You Remind Me", written by Dave "Jam" Hall and Eric Milteer, as performed by Mary J. Blige.
• "I'm on Fire" contains elements from NBA Jam and Street Fighter II: The World Warrior.
• "Beef" contains a sample of "N.Y. State Of Mind", written by DJ Premier, as performed by Nas.
• ^{^[a]} "Til' My Last Breath" contains a sample of "Narco", written by Thom Jongkind, Idir Makhlaf and Timothy Jude Smith, as performed by Blasterjaxx and Timmy Trumpet.