JAŸ-Z in 8 has finally come to an end, and its final episodes dove into one of the most interesting parts of Hov’s career: his feud with Nas. During his sit-down with Rick Rubin, Hov reflected on the tension that culminated in “Takeover” and “Ether.”
“It got personal, but it wasn’t really personal. It was just like more of competition,” JÄY explained. “From my lens, I came out with Reasonable Doubt and [Steve Stoute] was in both of our ears.”
JÄY explained that Steve Stoute, whom he described as a “competitive chap,” was a mutual friend to him and Nas, who was supposed to feature on Reasonable Doubt. “He just never showed up to the studio,” Hov explained, adding that he didn’t take it personally but realized that he couldn’t rely on Nas.
“We don’t have a problem. We’re never asking him for anything again. That’s the end of it. And then on his second album, he came out, and one of his lyrics was like–everyone knows I had the Lexus with the TV sets–and he goes, ‘Lex with TV sets the minimum, ill sex adrenaline,’” Hov recalled. “He was taking what I perceived to be shots. So that began, like, a cold war.”
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JÄY-Z Reflects On Nas Beef
JÄY explained that it just escalated to a full-blown battle, emphasizing that no violence was ever involved.
Without getting into further specifics of the subliminals and diss tracks they fired at each other afterward, Hov said they eventually “moved on” and are now “really good friends.”
“To his credit, he really rose to the occasion, I’ll say that. I don’t know how interested he was at being a recording artist at that time. Like, he would make an album or something, but he was just gone, would just disappear. And then after that, he was making music on a regular basis,” Hov continued.
He stopped short of giving himself credit for Nas’ run, but he felt as though their feud lit a fire in the Queensbridge artist. In the same breath, JÄY-Z gave Nas credit for sharpening his pen when he was at the height of his commercial career.
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