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BEEF BREAKDOWN: NAS VS JAY-Z

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• Beef Breakdown #0: The Prelude
• Beef Breakdown#1: Nicki Minaj & Cardi B
• Beef Breakdown #2: Taylor Swift & Kanye West
• Beef Breakdown #3: Eminem & Pretty Much Every Single Popstar
• Beef Breakdown #4: JAY-Z & Kanye West
• Beef Breakdown #5: Eminem & Ja Rule
• 👉 Beef Breakdown #6: Nas vs JAY-Z

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Hey all! I’m @Jetski_Wavez, and we’re back with another Beef Breakdown. Unfortunately, I wasn’t able to screenshot the results of the last post’s vote, but most people had voted for Nas and JAY-Z’s beef. Let’s get into it!

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1996

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It was two years after Nas had dropped the legendary Illmatic, and he was supposed to appear on JAY-Z’s album Reasonable Doubts (specifically “Bring it On”), but he never did. So Skizz Beatz, the producer, did the next best thing, and sampled one of Nas’ line from Pete Rock’s remix of “The World is Yours” to be on JAY-Z’s track “Dead Presidents II”. Lots of guys think that track’s JAY-Z’s greatest ever, hitting shelves in June 1996.

It Was Written, Nas’ second album, dropped a month later, and “The Message” is seen by many as a clear diss towards JAY-Z, with lyrics like:

Lex with TV sets the minimum

❓ JAY-Z was a fan of Lexuses; he even featured one in the video for “Dead Presidents II”

Nas later said that JAY inspired the line:

I saw Jay-Z driving a Lexus with the TVs in them. I got rid of my Lexus at that point and I was looking for the next best thing. It wasn’t a shot at Jay but it was just saying that’s the minimum you gotta have. It’s not a shot at him but he inspired that line. It wasn’t necessarily a shot at him but because the song was a shot at everybody, he fell into that. But he definitely inspired that line.

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1997

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JAY-Z sampled Nas again on “Rap Game / Crack Game”, and it was a (possibly?) respectful nod to Nas; however, “Where I’m From” could be a shot at Nas, with JAY-Z saying:

I’m from where niggas pull your card and argue all day about
Who’s the best MC’s, Biggie, Jay-Z, and Nas.

🤔 Who do you think is the best MC? Leave your decision in the comments!

After Biggie unfortunately died in March, JAY-Z began to approach the throne of New York hip-hop on “The City is Mine”.

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1999

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JAY-Z’s “apprentice”, Memphis Bleek, dropped his debut single “Is That Your Chick (The Lost Verses)”, which could be a diss to Nas’ “Nas Is Like”. On the album Coming of Age, Bleek rapped a line that probably kickstarted the beef:

My whole team rocks, we don’t speak to cats
I’ma ball till I fall, what you think of that?

Nas came back on “Nastradamus”, firing clear shots:

You wanna ball ‘till you fall? I can help you with that
You want beef? I could let a slug melt in your hat

❓ Memphis was known for his tilted cap:

Bleek was not happy, and he replied on “Mind Right”:

Your lifestyle’s written (a reference to Nas’ It Was Written)
So who you supposed to be, play your position

It’s beef, I’ma see you and bang ‘til you hang up
Your life a life, but here’s the truth
You ain’t hype to die, but you hype to shoot

Now the miniature beef between the two was in full swing, and Nas fired back with “We Will Survive”:

It used to be fun, makin’ records to see your response
But now competition is now, now that you’re gone
And these niggas is wrong, using your name in vain
And they claim to be New York’s king? It ain’t about that

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2001

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JAY-Z finally launched shots which were directly at Nas at Hot 97’s Summer Jam—JAY’s set also included a bunch of disses towards Mobb Deep, and while rapping the first 32 bars of “Takeover”, JAY-Z finished with:

Ask Nas, he don’t want it with Hov. NO.

Nas was quick to reply with the “Illmatic (H to the Omo)” JAY-Z diss over Eric B. & Rakim’s “Paid in Full”:

Rip the Freeway, shoot through Memphis with money bags
Stop in Philly, order cheese steaks and eat Beans fast
And bring it back up top, remove the fake king of New York
You show off, I count off when you sample my voice

However, JAY-Z came back with the final bars of “Takeover”, produced by Kanye West, sampling “The boots of war/The Sound of the police and beginning with a Jim Morrison sample:

I know you miss it Nas the (fame)
But along with celebrity comes about 70 shots to your frame
Nigga, you a (lame)
You’s the fag model for Karl Kani, Esco ads

So here’s a bit of back-and-forth:

NAS: JAY-Z’s a fake hustler
JAY-Z: Nas didn’t live the street life
NAS: I “count off” when you sample my songs
JAY-Z: You made the line hot, but I made the track hot

I showed you your first TEC, on tour with Large Professor
Then I heard your album about your TEC on the dresser
So yeah, I sampled your voice, you was using it wrong
You made it a hot line, I made it a hot song
And you ain’t get a coin, nigga, you was getting fucked then
I know who I paid, God – Serchlite publishing
Use your braaaaain
You said you’ve been in this 10, I’ve been in it 5 – smarten up, Nas

Now, Nas ***had*** to respond. But how?

The answer to that is with “Ether”, where he used a 2Pac sample with him saying “Fuck JAY-Z”:

No jail bars Jigga, no pies, no case
Just Hawaiian shirts, hanging with little Chase
You a fan, a phony, a fake, a pussy, a Stan
I still whip your ass, you thirty-six in a karate class
You Tae-Bo ho, tryna work it out, you tryna get brolic
Ask me if I’m tryna kick knowledge
Nah, I’m tryna kick the sh-t you need to learn though
That ether, that shit that make your soul burn slow

“Ether” brought Nas back to the limelight, and became a part of hip-hop slang.

On his album Stillmatic, Nas continued to throw shots at JAY-Z on tracks like “Stillmatic [Credits]” and “You’re the Man”.

Your arms too short to box with God
I don’t kill soloists, only kill squads
Fame went to they head, so now it’s “Fuck Nas”
Yesterday you begged for a deal, today you tough guys
I seen it coming, soon as I popped my first bottle
I spotted my enemies tryna do what I do
Came in with my style, so I fathered you
I kept changing on the world since “Barbeque”
Now you wanna hang with niggas I hung with
Fuck bitches, I hit

JAY-Z was shaken by this, so on his freestyle over “Got Urself A…” and “Bad Intentions”, he revealed an affair he had with the mother of Nas’ daughter Destiny, Carmen Bryan:

Me and the boy AI got more in common than just balling and rhyming
Get it? More in Carmen
I came in your Bentley backseat, skeeted in your Jeep
Left condoms on your baby seat

However.... JAY’s mum heard this.

JAY-Z’s mother Gloria believed that he had gone too far, and she told him to apologise—so he did, emotionally saying:

I want to apologize to Carmen and any females I may have offended.

Hot 97 dropped a poll asking who had won the beef, and 58% went with Nas.

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2002

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Five years after, they were still trading shots, with JAY-Z saying on “Blueprint ²”:

My momma can’t save you this time
Niggas is history

Upon hearing this, Nas took a cold move, referring to JAY-Z as nobody in the music scene in “Last Real Nigga Alive”:

Jigga started to flow like us, but hit with “Ain’t No Nigga”
Had much Versace swagger
Big admired the Brooklynite and took him in as Iceberg the rapper

I was Scarface, Jay was Manolo
It hurt me when I had to kill him and his whole squad for dolo

❓ In the film Scarface, Tony, the main character, killed Manolo when he found out that he was sleeping with his sister—Manolo was much softer than Tony.

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2003

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The beef soon began to subside, with JAY-Z freestyling a response to Nas’ “Made You Look”:

They shootin', but nobody dyin'
Somebody’s lyin’

Nas also took a minor shot on Braveheart’s “Quick To Back Down”:

First of all, this is Nas, I’ma Braveheart veteran
And y’all already know who I’m better than

However, they seemed to stay out of each other’s way, and that was the final shot!

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The aftermath

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At JAY-Z’s concert I Declare War, he brought Nas on stage, and they officially squashed their beef. Then they performed “Dead Presidents” and “The World is Yours”, causing the crowd to go nuts.

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Who do you think is the winner?

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Leave your opinion in the comments!

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Thanks for reading, and this will be back next week! Don’t forget to vote for the next beef!

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Wall of Legends: @BenRodz @poeticimmunity @MilesTheMorales @chanhmatt @RaulMarquesRJ

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Forum Tag Wall: @genius-editorial-board @genius-moderation @pop-genius @rap-genius @country-genius @r-and-b-genius

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Previous Commenters: @WaterGod @BigBabyGOAT_HGA @lilCoIin @GnarlingtonTX @xMERLYN @Serta @BbgTiCy @ninetyninedreams @UnKorruptedKhi @obscured @BenRodz @Obscuro_EwokMatters @kingkillmonger @Madbrad200 @JJEvans @Michael

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Join the tag wall to join this prestigious wall of legends and be one of the first to read this! 😉

Vote here!!!

https://forms.gle/mq2jSfc4U3b5Vw4B7

@Jetski_Wavez Awesome job man!!
I literally had no idea about their beef so thanks!!
And also thanks for the S/O it made my day!!

One more thing how do you get the Tag Wall to appear at the bottom of the forum properly?

The beat on Dead Presidents II easily top 5

But pls add me to the tagwall OP

@chanhmatt You got it!

@BenRodz I just use a horizontal line to separate it from the rest of the text.

I don’t consider this the greatest beef ever but it is certainly the hardest to decide. I’ve been thinking about who won this since I found out about this beef. I’ve seen people fight about it!

Like many others, I side with Nas. Barely, but yeah, Nas.

I think the key aspect to understand here is New York’s rap post-Biggie scene. The death of the “only Christopher Jay Z acknowledges” left some room at the top of the rap game. If Biggie, who had just dropped Life After Death (1997) – confirming, thus, his place at the top – was gone, who would be the best of NY? The weight of this dispute was particularly strong considering the context of East-West coast rivalry.

Jay Z and Nas took rather different approaches to this matter, so it seems. While Nas was like “it ain’t about that”, Jay Z was quick to claim his place at the throne, as @Jetski_Wavez smartly points out.

A mistake from a young and ruthless Jay Z, as far as I’m concerned. Biggie deserved more respect.

A few years later, already in the 2000s, in the city of New York, as 50 Cent rose to global reach (together with the whole Aftermath, Interscope, Shady gang and so on), Jay Z and Nas where still at each other’s throats – which is good, otherwise we wouldn’t have “Ether” and “Takeover” :)

Now, “Ether” vs “Takeover” is a special chapter in this beef because they’re both such iconic tracks. I love Jim Morrison and I love Kanye West, so I have every reason to side with “Takeover” on this one. But I just can’t. I think “Ether” is a better diss track.

I think “Ether” gave Nas the victory because of the influence it had on the rap genre afterwards, becoming a symbolic word for other beefs in general. Jay had awesome lyrics like “you made it a hot line, I made it a hot song”. But in my view, Jay’s best arguments here are all based on what Nas cleverly pointed out on the very first verse: “name a rapper that I ain’t influenced”. At the end of the day, I see Nas as a bigger force – “calling my crib and I ain’t even give you my number”.

Still, today I’d easily agree that Jay Z is a much bigger and better artist than Nas. I have no doubts about this.

Sorry for the long post.

@RaulMarquesRJ Yeah, I agree! I also think Nas won, because of the influence of “Ether'.

Those beef breakdowns are real dope! Please add me to the tagwall :D @Jetski_Wavez

@noufi You got it!

Hey everyone! At the moment, voting is at a three-way-tie, with three beefs having 25% of the votes. If you haven’t voteed alread, make sure to!

https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSc3eVZYYUjuNXggsHpRdnX7T4NgNZgLnXDFAZrvMFKAix8ZEA/viewform?usp=sf_link