To this day, hip-hop fans still bow in reverence to Nas’ 1994 debut, Illmatic. Widely regarded as a touchstone for East Coast rap, the album introduced us to the Brooklyn-born, Queens-raised wordsmith, a man whose gritty, unshackled flow and raw portrayal of the Queensbridge projects inspired critics to crown him as one of the greatest emcees of all time.

Fans have bumped that acclaimed release across decades. And when Nas debuts at the Encore Theater August 29 in the first of three performances, they’ll be able to hear it with a live orchestra, as the Las Vegas Philharmonic joins him onstage to celebrate the 30th anniversary of Illmatic.

“This is an unusual pairing, and it totally makes sense here in Las Vegas,” says Alice Sauro, executive director of the philharmonic.

Unusual, yes, but not as much as it used to be. Recently, artists like Metro Boomin and Roddy Ricch have utilized the arrangements of national orchestras in their live sets, with Eminem performing with the Detroit Symphony this year.

But like many things in his career, Nas pioneered the trend when he teamed up with the National Symphony Orchestra in 2018 to perform Illmatic at the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C.—a feat Sauro says is a bigger deal than most realize.

“Listening to what the Kennedy Center did a few years ago, to me, it’s really exciting because it builds a lot of tension while he’s telling his story. You can feel the layers coming in of the different instrument families, and then as the tension of his story gets greater, the music increases in volume, and then comes some really great statements from the orchestra,” says Sauro. “I read that his father was a jazz musician, so this all really partners well with what it is that he’s doing.”

Nas has bridged the gap between hip-hop and symphonic music across several concerts now, and Sauro says it’s possible he may be arranging additional songs for his Encore debut. In preparation, the Las Vegas Philharmonic and other orchestras Nas has worked with are comparing notes, determining the best way to enhance this prolific body of work. But to Sauro, it’s all still music at the end of the day.

“This is music, and he is a modern-day poet. The way that they speak and the pentameter that they speak with, in sharing their stories, has a musical line and phrases to it,” she says. “All of this goes into what the arrangers are going to think about when they want to add strings, brass and additional percussion, and some of the woodwinds.”

It’s also about matching those instruments and their tones to Nas’ voice. The rapper weaves multisyllabic rhymes throughout his tracks, creating a complex and hard-hitting cadence that will shine once the rapturous swell of symphonies kick in. We can see it now: “N.Y. State of Mind” punctuated by dashing keys and a flourish of violins; “One Love” magnified by rich orchestral percussion.

Sauro believes this “cross-pollination” of genres will reach even more people, some who’ve possibly never seen a symphony orchestra before and others who’ve never heard of Nas.

That’s also why the Las Vegas Philharmonic’s 26th season is so diverse. “We are accessible to everyone, and we want everybody to feel comfortable coming to the Philharmonic,” Sauro says. “This is for our community. We are the orchestra for Las Vegas.”

NAS WITH THE LAS VEGAS PHILHARMONIC August 29 & 31, September 1, 8 p.m., $95-$175. Encore Theater, ticketmaster.com.

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