The Firm

The Firm was a short-lived American hip-hop supergroup formed in the mid-1990s, uniting rapper Nas with Foxy Brown, AZ, and Cormega, the last of whom was replaced by Nature before the group's sole album. The concept grew out of Nas's desire to build a Mafia-styled crew of top New York lyricists, with the group first surfacing on the track «Affirmative Action» from Nas's 1996 album It Was Written.

The Firm released The Album in 1997 on Dr. Dre's Aftermath Entertainment, debuting at number one on the Billboard 200 and going gold. Produced heavily by Dr. Dre and the Trackmasters, the record fused East Coast hardcore rap lyricism with West Coast-inflected production, giving it a distinctly cinematic, crime-narrative feel built around tracks like «Phone Tap» and «Firm Biz».

Internal tensions over management, label politics, and creative direction prevented the group from becoming the ongoing dynasty Nas had envisioned, and The Firm disbanded after their only album. The original lineup of Nas, AZ, Foxy Brown, and Cormega reunited briefly on «Full Circle» from Nas's 2020 album King's Disease, closing the loop on one of hip-hop's most talked-about supergroup experiments.