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Watch Nas Talk About Kendrick, J.Cole, and Shaq on Bill Simmons’s Awkward TV Show

Bill Simmons wrangled a slightly puzzling panel of guests for his HBO talk show Any Given Wednesday last night. Nas and Kevin Durant sat down with the host for a joint interview for some reason—perhaps the unifying theme was to chat with public figures who clearly don’t like speaking to the media?

Durant gritted his teeth through a discussion of his move from the Oklahoma City Thunder to the Golden State Warriors, reminisced about his childhood love of Rick James, and said he doesn’t bother carrying competition off of the court when asked about his former teammate Russell Westbrook. In between, Simmons volleyed questions over to Nas, getting the hip-hop legend to admit that, thanks to Kendrick Lamar, Drake, and J. Cole, the genre’s in a healthier place than it was 10 years ago, when he released Hip Hop Is Dead.

The rest of Nas’s interview was stuck in the past: the iconic rivalry with Jay Z, Nas’s creative lows in the late ’90s, the shadow that Biggie and 2Pac still cast over hip-hop. All fine enough—Nas really doesn’t seem like the chatty type to begin with—but not one question about the long-awaited followup to 2012’s Life Is Good? Or DJ Khaled’s ridiculous video for “Nas Album Done”? At least we got Nas calling Donald Trump an “asshole” on television. Oh, and for the record, the Illmatic MC’s favorite NBA rapper is Shaquille O’Neal, which is a completely reasonable pick.

Simmons also chopped it up with Vince Staples, who proclaimed himself the second-funniest rapper alive … after Donald Glover. Watch clips from Any Given Wednesday below.

https://youtube.com/watch?v=UtFq5Z_l8DQ