Nas to be Honored by Amy Winehouse Foundation

Hip-hop legend Nas and DJ/record producer Mark Ronson will be honored by the organization devoted to the life and legacy of their good friend, Amy Winehouse. The two musis enthusiasts will become patrons of the Amy Winehouse Foundation.

Nas and Amy Winehouse’s friendship stretched beyond music, in that they both shared the same birthday September 13th. Although, they never got a chance to actually record a song together, Nas did release “Cherry Wine” in 2012, which features vocals from Winehouse. In an interview with HuffPost Live in 2014, Nas revealed that the two had plans to collaborate before her untimely death in 2011.

“She had done ‘Me & Mr. Jones’ on her last album when she was living, which was about going to one of my shows,” he recounted. “[It was] a true story — she told me she was trying to go to one of my shows and something happened and she couldn’t make it, so she made a song about it. So this song [that we wanted to make] was part two that she wanted me to be on, and then we had this other song which was a Donny Hathaway remake and it was her idea, so we wanted to do two different songs.”

The fourth annual Amy Winehouse Foundation Gala will take place in London at the The Savoy. According to Ronson, this will be a big deal especially considering it’s concerns “one of the best lyricists of this generation.”

“Becoming a patron of the Amy Winehouse Foundation is a big deal to me,” Ronson says. “It’s very important to help the great work that they are already doing, both with substance misuse and helping talented disadvantaged youth through music. Amy’s music touched so many and also helped them—and now through the Foundation, it continues to help people.”

Congrats to these two gentlemen!