| Beef Monday-Jay-Z Vs. Nas | |
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Jay-Z Vs. Nas
The Nas Vs. Jay-Z beef is one of the best and realest beefs ever in hip-hop. This beef really was beneficial for all parties involved including for the culture of Hip-Hop. Even if you are a big Jay-Z fan like me you have to give it to Nas. At one point Nas was down and out and in a slump an Jay-Z brought him out of it. This battle helped rappers around the world step up their pen games and it shook up and woke up a lot of fans. The last few years beef has become a marketing tool and a way for an unknown to try and get known. Back in the day beef was a legitimate thing that had meaning. Back then guys that were beefing had personal reasons and they actually knew the person they were dissing. Hip-Hop is a tight circle with a lot of competition. Some of the greatest rappers to this day all came up together including: Biggie, Dmx,Tupac, Nas and Jay-Z. Let's take it back to 1994 when we have an unknown Nasir Jones from Queens, New York. Nas was just starting to get a rep and the rumors were that his solo album, "Illmatic" was an instant classic. Nas's first album was ahead of its time lyrically and it inspired a whole new generation of new and improved lyricist. At this time Jay-Z was known underground for battling people (stories include Biggie, Busta Rhymes, DMX, GZA, LL Cool J and more) but as far as in the industry and mainstream fans he was an unknown. At a young age Nas was very influential to other MC's you can even see in Nas's early videos he throws up the Rocafella diamond before Jay-Z blew up. (It Ain't Hard To Tell video) Now Nas and Jay-Z had many mutual friends (including Biggie Smalls) so they have always known of each other. On Jay-Z's first album he uses Nas voice on the song, "Dead Presidents". The chorus of the song is a sample of Nas saying, "I'm out for dead presidents to represent me." One could say Jay-Z had nothing to do with that and he just liked the sample. However it is common knowledge Jay-Z has always been a huge Nas fan. So it is not a surprise to hear that Jigga man reached out to Nas (who was 19 at the time and Jay-z was around 27) to be on his "Reasonable Doubt" album on the song, "Bring It On". For whatever reason Nas never shows up to the studio session and Jay-Z finishes the song. Around this time Biggie and Nas were feuding to be the King Of New York. Jay-Z was always friends with Biggie but at this time he wasn't anywhere near his friends as far as mainstream appeal. Once Biggie died the throne of New York was up for grabs and it was between Nas and Jay-z. Once Jay-Z's first album came out called, "Reasonable Doubt" it was well respected but it wasn't as big as it is now. Jay-Z followed up "Reasonable Doubt" with his next album called, "Volume 1 In My Life Time." Even after Nas didn't show up for a studio session previously, Jay-Z still shows Nas respect when he raps, "Whose the best Mc Biggie, Jay-z or Nas?" on the song, "Where I'm From". While Nas on the other hand was still disrespecting Jay-Z by saying, "And these niggaz is wrong -- usin your name in vain And they claim to be New York's king? It ain't about that". Nas and Jay-Z were going at it for years and the pressure kept building and building over the years. Fast forward a few albums and Jay-Z gets his crew together including Memphis Bleek. For whatever reason Memphis Bleek and Nas started going at it on record first. Bleek put out his album, "Coming Of Age" in 1999. On the song, "What you think of that" he says, "I'm gonna ball till i fall." A year or so later Nas releases his album "Nastradamus" where he says on on the title track, "You wanna ball till you fall I can help you with that/ you want beef I can let a slug melt in ya hat."" Bleek took this as a diss to him and he quickly retailiated. Nas had an album called, "It Was Written" that had just came out. Memphis Bleek had a song called, "Mind Right" where he says, "and only a few fit in your lifestyles written/ so who you supposed to be play your position." Which was a slick shot at Nas. Here is a video of Bleek talking about how he dissed Nas and why. These few lyrical jabs blew the flood gates open on the whole beef. Around this time Jay-Z was working on his, "Blueprint" album and was ready to perform some new songs in a concert. In New York the biggest Hip Hop station is Hot 97 and the biggest concert is always Summer Jam. Jay was set to headline Summer Jam and perform some new songs from his new album. Well one of the songs he performs is the now infamous, "Takeover". Jay-Z performed the first few verses of the song but the third verse is really about Nas. Well at the end of the second verse Jay-z says, "Ask Nas he don't want it with Hov/nooooo". This was the first time one of the two publicly dissed the other. The following month Jay-z drops his album that has the full, "Takeover" song on it. At this time a lot of rappers were gunning at Jay-z for title as the best so Jay-z dropped this diss track to address the haters. Some of the people the song is about include: Mobb Deep, Nas and some other speculations. The part that addresses Nas is the most interesting part. He claims Nas used to be good but he fell off, Nas doesn't have any good albums; basically anything to discredit him from being the K.O.N.Y. (King of New York). He also attacks Nas's street credibility saying he had none and how he sampled Nas's voice and made it a hot song. The most interesting part of the track is the end where Jay-Z says, "Cause you know who did you know what/with you know who, lets keep that between me and you." People were going crazy over Jay-Z actually dissing Nas. Everyone thought Jay-Z killed him and Nas could never recover from such a blow. Little did anyone know Jay-Z woke up a sleeping giant. A few months after this Nas quickly responds with an underground track called, "Stillmatic" (H to omo). While this song may have flown under some people's radar this was a hard hitting diss track. On the song Nas addresses a lot of the accusations Jay-Z made on, "Takeover". Nas took it on him self to destroy the whole Rocafella when he attacks Freeway, Beanie Sigel, Jay-Z and Memphis Bleek all on one track. Nas also attacks Jay-Z's credibility claiming he is fake.
After this diss track dropped people every where announced Nas as the winner of the beef. Hot 97 the radio station in New York even ran a poll of who won the battle and because of, "Ether" everyone voted for Nas. This was one of the only battles Jay-z ever lost and it really put him in his place. This diss song instantly put Nas as one of the best if not better than Jay-Z. There were no punches held from Nas on this track and it seems it really hit a nerve with Jay-z. In fact Jay-z went on Hot 97 a few days later and he sounded really upset.
Here is the audio of Jay-z talking about it. Jay-Z quickly responded and tried to save face when he released another diss song called, "Supa Ugly". Jay was back with a vengeance and he had a huge chip on his shoulder. Nas had said somethings in the past questioning Jay-Z's sexuality, saying he's ugly and he hates women. So Jay-Z defended himself and explained the phrase I mentioned earlier on, "Takeover" where he says,""Cause you know who did you know what/ with you know who, lets keep that between me and you." What Jay was talking about is how he had sex with Nas's baby mom in her car. This diss song, "Supa Ugly" addresses many other topics and overall it was a pretty good diss. The problem was that the damage was already done and Nas had already won the battle. It was damn near impossible for Jay-Z to come back from the "Ether" bomb. That didn't stop Jay-Z from getting vulgar on the track going into details about his relations with Nas's babies mother. The diss was so vulgar Jay-z's mom made him apologize on the radio to Nas for saying such nasty stuff.
By this time Nas had already spoke his peace and said he wasn't releasing any more diss songs. Nas said what he had to say threw a few punches and they all landed directly on Jay-Z's chin. While most would argue Nas won the battle in the end Jay-Z won the war because he was still as popular as ever. Yes Jay's ego was hurt and yes Nas exposed the chink in his armor. That didn't stop Jay from selling records and becoming the biggest name in Hip Hop. It was easy to see Jay-Z still felt he had to address the situation once more because he dropped another diss track.A few years after, "Takeover" came out Jay released a new diss song called, "Blueprint 2" which was also the name of the album. This song wasn't a complete diss to Nas because Jay also used it to address some other issues. However Jay did make some good points about Nas but the damage was already done.
This was the last diss song to come out of this battle. A few years later Jay and Nas dead the beef and perform a few concerts together. Then Jay-Z who was the new president of Def Jam got Nas a multimillion dollar recording contract with the label. So in the end Jay-Z becomes Nas's boss so who really won the war? |
| Last Updated ( Monday, 30 August 2010 22:10 ) |