“Sprite has been around since my childhood to now. So it’s still the household brand … And this campaign or this movement is what 50 Years of Hip Hop is all about. You have women, You have men. You have Rakim. A pioneer like him. You have somewhat of an understudy like myself to Rakim, and you have Latto and GloRilla, which are the female voices to add. It’s a bright light to Hip Hop. They add something with their voices, and they are expanding the whole game with their presence. And to me, that’s what 50 Years of Hip Hop is about,” Nas said. 

This summer, obey your thirst with a new limited-edition flavor — Sprite Lymonade Legacy. The original flavor is remixed with lemon-lime soda and a splash of lemonade and strawberry — Both Lymonade Legacy and original Sprite cans will feature “Celebrating 50 Years of Hip-Hop” on their labels.

The sponsored “Summer of Drops” include exclusive event experiences like Drake meet-and-greets, Concert ticket raffles, and a Rolling Loud Lifetime Pass. It also includes tour merchandise, authentic signed merch like Latto and Nas Polaroids, and signed directorial slates from Rakim, GlorRilla and Latto.

Hip Hop is a way of living — a culture that’s deeply rooted in fashion to politics. Music artists of the genre have been the faces of major trends from slang, dances, haircuts, brands, and much more. Like many of his peers, Nas had a unique impact on his fan base. From his skin fade cut to his fashion, listeners followed suit.

“Oh, man. My impact is probably all of those things. A little bit of all of those things [clothes, hair, swag]. And also, just to push the limit, push it to the limit and explore different things, different styles, different truths about yourself, your truth, your message to people, explore what you think about the world you live in, the society you live in,” Nas said when sighting his hand in Hip-Hop.

Discussing how Hip-Hop positively changed the life of the kid from Queensbridge, Nas reflected on how it has put him in rooms he never thought to dream of and how it enabled his family to create their own possibilities.

“Well, Hip Hop, for me, changed my family. The path for us, we are now reaching goals that once seemed too far away, and we’re able to use our minds and ideas to create,” he said. “I think through Hip Hop music and 50 years of it shows you that there’s one longevity out here that it’s not just a fly-by-night thing, that you don’t have to just look at it as a quick lick or something that’s going to just make you rich really quickly.”

“You look at it as a lifetime thing,” he continued. “You look at it as something that starts off as music but branches off into all kinds of different businesses, and it goes from one step to the next to the next. So you just use your musical platform to push yourself to different industries and different fields, and you wind up in a place you didn’t even you could never dream. Like Hip Hop is a dream.”

“Like Biggie said, it was all a dream. And Sprite has been with us the whole time. And it seems like just yesterday I did a commercial with them was years ago,” he added.

Nas’s discography is full of fan favorites, but his classic and first studio album, Illmatic, featuring producers and artists like Premiere and Q-tip, catapulted him to rap success. Just at the young age of 19, Nas curated an iconic rap album that would be labeled as one of the greatest of our time. Nas himself took a moment to look back at the impact of that album and calls himself “lucky.”

“You know what’s crazy? I saw so many changes in the music from all those years of being in it. I just saw it become what it is today. And, I think about those times — my humble beginnings and those times can never be replaced. Those times are unmatched. Those times, working with those producers changed my life, and it makes me go, Wow, I knew what I was doing at a young age,” Nas said

” … Because I grabbed those producers, and I was lucky enough to have them want to work with me too. And I had a vision back then, and I’m proud of myself. I’m proud of that vision that I had when I was that young to put together a record and put it out at the right time,” Nas added. “Those guys were nice enough to work with a new guy like me. So I think I’m very blessed in that way and very lucky because [there’s] a lot of people I’ve seen not really get exactly what they wanted to get by doing the wrong things. And it’s a tough, tough business. It’s a tough game. And I just kind of feel like I just made it. And I’m really, really, really happy and grateful.”

Consumers will be able to engage with the drops by entering the ongoing sweepstakes via on-pack QR codes, digital and social, to win individual drops and exclusive content. Fans can scan either the base Sprite or Lymonade Legacy cans or 20oz bottle labels to unlock access to the drops, with exclusive releases for each product.