Fat Joe has stepped in to defend Nas from the hefty criticism he received from MC Shan.
The former Juice Crew legend dissed Nas last month for seemingly not including him on the bill for Mass Appeal’s epic Yankee Stadium concert celebrating Hip Hop’s 50th anniversary.
After catching wind of his scathing comments, Joe defended the Queensbridge rap legend on Instagram this week, saying he heard that Shan is “impossible” to work with.
“I did my little one-two journalism, a.k.a. getting to the bottom of it, and they say [MC Shan] is kinda impossible to deal with,” he began in the video. “They tried as much as they can… Sometimes. unfortunately, our pioneers stand in the way of their own bag.
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“I do not know why. I have spoken to them over and over again … I’m doing just fine, but my pioneers — I wouldn’t be here if it wasn’t for the pioneers. So sometimes when I can talk to them, I sit down and be like, ‘Yo, you can’t get the bag doing this and that.'”
Joey Crack then recalled a time when another unnamed NYC Hip Hop pioneer was going to have a street named after him, but the city went in another direction after he asked for $50,000 in exchange for the honor.
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“There was one pioneer who was getting a block named after him,” Joe continued. “The day before … he said he wanted $50,000 cash in the bag to New York City, to the fucking mayors and all that! If he don’t get $50,000 cash, he not showing up.
“Well, guess what? The next day, they showed up with a new sign that said ‘Hip Hop Boulevard’ or ‘Hip Hop Way,’ and he had a block that was gonna be named after him!”
MC Shan took to Instagram in July and aired out his frustrations with his fellow Queensbridge native, who has been involved in several Hip Hop 50 campaigns alongside Mass Appeal.
“I’m sitting here hearing that Nas is doing these muthafuckin’ 50th anniversary shows, right?” Shan began. “Nas, if you doing 50th anniversary shows and you ain’t holla at ya mans, let me tell you something, my n-gga, don’t never mention my muthafuckin’ name again.”
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Nas has yet to respond to MC Shan. Despite the 57-year-old’s grievances, the Illmatic lyricist has frequently shown love to Shan, including on The Late Show With Stephen Colbert in February.
During the interview, Esco recited lyrics from Shan’s classic 1985 song “The Bridge” while calling it one of his favorite rap songs of all time.
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“It was a song about my neighborhood called ‘The Bridge,’” he said. “And MC Shan — this came out in 1985, I was very young, and it was a Hip Hop anthem.
“He said in the last verse, I’m paraphrasing it: ‘Dead dreams, bought and sold/ You gotta try and receive your goal/ However you do it, however you may/ Don’t ever listen to what nobody say/ ‘Cause I will tell you the deal/ You gotta go by what your heart feel/ ‘Cause if you don’t, you’ll be misled/ By stupid little things put inside your head.’”
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He continued: “That verse, when I heard it, it was like gospel. This is what I have to be aware of.”
