Meaning of “Office Hours” by Nas (ft. 50 Cent)
For a rapper who’s been professionally active for over three decades and boasts a net worth approaching $100 million, Nas has remained prolifically active in the game. For instance, he’s dropped studio albums every year of this decade thus far – 2020’s “King’s Disease”, 2021’s “King’s Disease II and “Magic” and 2022’s “King’s Disease III”.
On 21 July 2022, Nas’s 17th studio album, “Magic 2”, came out via a label he co-founded called Mass Appeal.
The producer of this LP is Hit-Boy (who also produced all of Nas’s aforementioned albums), a behind-the-scenes’ musician who briefly ran with Kanye’s label, GOOD Music, during the early 2010s. And he also co-wrote “Office Hours” with Roget Chahayed, Nas and 50 Cent.
NAS, FIDDY & THE BLACK MAMBA
Technically speaking, Fiddy has also been in the game since the 1990s, though he didn’t get around to dropping his first studio album, “Get Rich or Die Tryin’”, until 2003. He also, as with Nas, is from Queens, New York.
So as fate would have it they have teamed up a couple of times prior, specifically during the early aughts, with Nas making a couple of appearances on Curtis’s debut mixtape, 2002’s “Guess Who’s Back?”.
But here’s a very interesting fact. By the looks of things, the first time the two of them participated on the same song would be on a track titled “Thug Poet”, dropped in the year 2000, which was actually headlined by the late, great basketball player Kobe Bryant who, for a brief time, doubled as a rapper.
And as for why Nas and Fiddy haven’t teamed up more back in the days, the likely reason would be because the two of proceeded to have beef for about a decade, from the mid-aughts into the mid-2010s.
So in a manner of speaking, we can say that this is actually their first true collaboration, i.e. the first song ever that only features 50 Cent and Nas. And Fiddy put fans on to the fact that this track was forthcoming five months prior to its release. Also to note, and besides 21 Savage he’s the only guest vocalist to appear on Magic 2.
THE LYRICS OF “OFFICE HOURS”
If nothing else, it is clear that “Office Hours” is braggadocious in nature, with the two emcees for example touting their legendary status in the world of hip-hop. There may be embellishments here and there, such as Nas claiming that he brought back the “big necklace” fad during the 1990s, or with Fiddy claiming that he and his collaborator are “the reason you spell ‘NY’ with capital letters”.
But that said, the lyrics of this song feel like they’re all over the place. For instance, good luck trying to make comprehensive sense out of the chorus as rendered by Nas even though, once again, it can be pieced that he’s using it to boast about his skills, standing or what have you.
50 Cent is afforded two verses in, and the second of them, i.e. the third verse overall, can be considered the clearest segment of “Office Hours”. Therein Fiddy does what he does best, which is rapping about, most simply put, assaulting someone with a gun.
And as far as the title of this song, Nas does mention it in the first verse. He does so seemingly within the context of alluding to his work ethic and how he generates money. And Jones also uses this track to point out how he really hates “Fredos”. And even though it’s not clear where he got that term from, the rapper uses it in general to point to rivals or whoever whom he deems to be of a lower standing.
