JAY-Z and Nas’ relationship has been contentious at times, to say the least. For years, the two Hip Hop titans took their animosity toward one another to wax, leading many to believe their rift would never end.
Ultimately, Nas and Jay publicly reconciled in 2005 at the Continental Airlines Arena in East Rutherford, New Jersey during Hov’s I Declare War’ Tour. But DJ Cassidy remembers another moment where he believes they truly squashed their beef.
While speaking to MC Serch on The Serch Says Podcast, Cassidy recalled DJing at a Def Jam holiday retreat in 2006 at Connecticut’s Foxwoods Resort Casino, a place he likened to Atlantic City.
“At the time, I’m doing all of Jay’s parties and Jay was the president of Def Jam and L.A. Reid was CEO,” he told Serch. “So, Jay and L.A. had already signed Nas to Def Jam and this was a big deal. I think Nas was coming from Columbia, so this was a huge deal because the JAY-Z and Nas battle had taken over the world. Several years later, Def Jam signs Nas while JAY-Z is the president of Def Jam, so this was an end of an era, the end of their beef, the two greats coming together — one as the label head, one as the artist.
“So Def Jam has an annual retreat over the holidays where all the staff and some of the artists, and they have parties. I did the opening night or the closing night party. I’ll be honest with you, I don’t know if I’ve ever told this story.”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_pLqVZiS80A&feature=youtu.be
Cassidy continued, “I’m on a stage at a casino restaurant and we’re not talking a ballroom — we’re talking like the P.F. Changs at the casino. On one side of the room is Jay, on one side is Nas. I led myself into this epic 30-minute back-and-forth between Jay records and Nas records, and not just the hits. Like ‘Memory Lane,’ so on and so on. If my memory serves me correctly, the space between them started to get smaller and smaller.
“Before you knew it, I passed someone a mic — this is all very casual, there was nothing set up for a performance. This is like standing on a restaurant table. Next thing you know, they’re rapping each other’s lyrics. You could feel it in the room from L.A. Reid down, that everyone was like a little kid at Disney World witnessing their favorite superheroes come out of the castle. And they were doing their own but next to each other.”
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After that night, Jay and Nas seemed back on track. Years later, Cassidy and Jay were at the same function and ran into each other.
“I was very young at the time, in my low 20s and this was all still very exciting to me,” he added. “By the way, as it is now. None of that has gotten old for me. But for someone in your young 20s, just to be down with anything JAY-Z or Nas is doing is out of this world. When I would see Jay at a party, I would go say what up and walk away and I got my minute to say hi and that was enough for me.
“I remember him walking over to me that night and tapping me on the shoulder. He said ‘You made that happen that night.’ My heart dropped. I will never forget that one moment when he kind of credited for me for this epic coming together that was not public. Of course, they went on to do great things together and share many stages together. This is either the first, or one of the first, times where that happened. It was an amazing moment.”
As the tale goes, it all started in 1996 when the Illmatic architect allegedly skipped a recording session for Hov’s single “Bring It On” from his debut album Reasonable Doubt, which seemed to be the catalyst for their impending fallout.
In July of that year, Nas released his sophomore album It Was Written, which included several perceived shots at Jay on the album opener “The Message.” Although Nas admitted the song was inspired by Jay, he denied it was intended to be a diss. But by that time, it was too late. Memphis Bleek then hopped in the mix, sparking a war of words between himself and Nas.
Things were taken to a whole other level when Jay blatantly dissed Mobb Deep and Nas on his 2001 album The Blueprint. On the Kanye West-produced track “Takeover” — which he initially performed at Hot 97’s Summer Jam — he calls Nas a has-been with lines such as, “One was, NAHHH, the other was Illmatic/That’s a one hot album every ten year average/And that’s so LAAAAAAAME! Nigga switch up your flow/Your shit is garbage, but you try and kick knowledge?”
Nas managed to take it up a notch with “Ether” from his 2001 album Stillmatic, a song that would go down in history. At one point in the track, Nas addressed Jay’s “has-been” accusations.
“I got this, locked since ’91, I am the truest,” he spit. “Name a rapper that I ain’t influenced … Y’all niggas deal with emotions like bitches/What’s sad is I love you, ’cause you’re my brother/You traded your soul for riches/My child, I’ve watched you grow up to be famous/And now I smile like a proud dad watchin’ his only son that made it … In ’88, you was gettin’ chased to your buildin’/Callin’ my crib, and I ain’t even give you my numbers/All I did was give you a style for you to run with.”
Jay then fired back with “Supa Ugly” in which he bragged about having an alleged three-year long affair with Nas’ then-girlfriend Carmen Bryan. The track prompted Jay’s mother Gloria Carter to call up Hot 97 and suggest her son apologize to Nas and his family for the brutal tongue lashing.
With all of that in the rearview, Nas and Jay’s once-severed relationship is firmly a thing of the past. Jay’s friendship with Kanye? Now that’s another story.
The Serch Says Podcast airs every Wednesday from 10 p.m. to midnight ET. Watch the DJ Cassidy clip in full above.
I love jay z n all but nas is the man
Ether…Done!
Its great to see them overcome beef and grow. They are now legends, enjoying vanguard status in the Game while Tekashi running these streets.
Jay Z agreed to collaborate just to prove to the world how much better he is than nas. Supaugly is far better than ether by the way.
Seems like Jay-Z spread it all over your mouth b
nas ain’t going to fuck you sweethart.
Just because you like sexual intercourses with men doesn’t mean everybody else do
There’s No coming back from Ether, tracks like that make you make friends with your OP, like Fvck It you got it, lets rap together now.
That Ether still burning ?. You still mad 19 years later?
Artistically speaking Nas won the battle, but businessly speaking Jay-Z won when he signed Nas to Def Jam while he was the CEO. I never understood why Nas didn’t sign to another record label. He could have wait for Jay-Z to leave Def Jam and then join the Def Jam roster after. I thought it was a bad move since it looked like Nas didn’t have any pride specially when Jay-Z told the world how he used to fuck his wife on the backseat of his own car. At some point when someone flouts your honor, there is no coming back from this.
Businessly speaking?? Nigga about the fuck up….J LOST
PERIOD
Nigga said “businessly” speaking. Lol.
You sound stupid LA Reid was the CEO who got the deal done dumbass
Dude, Carmen wasn’t Nas’s wife. She was his baby mama. And they weren’t together when Jay Z was sleeping with her. What I find creepy is why Jay Z would want an affair with Nas’s baby mama
In other news: NWA disbanded.
Yeah god forbid that we learn about the history behind one of the biggest reconciliations in Hiphop history. I’m sure you were probably in history class like “Yeah yeah yeah Malcolm X, there are some streets named after him can we move on?”
Nobody says: you get hit with a takeover
WE SAY you got ETHERED
BATTLE OVER
Both dope MCs. I’m not on this “you gotta pick one” garbage. I think Ether and Takeover are both overrated. They’ve both done way doper stuff than that. I also don’t think Nas wrote Ether. That’s not his flow.
Seriously shut the fuck up
He wrote it. What are you talking about
He didn’t write it. He didn’t write the intro on “N” either. I’m a Nas fan but I’m not a dick rider. Read the credits.
Y’all writing these articles like you gotta cross a word limit or something lol
Real talk. I’d suck Jay Z’s dick. Just to say it taste better than Nas.
Queens get the $$$
I’m glad to see these two did work things out but i’m one of the few that preferred Takeover over Ether. Ether was hot but it was just a bunch of jokes and insults. On the Takeover this dude Jay broke down Nas whole career. To me that would hurt alot more. You can have someone call me a camel, so what I’m dating one of the hottest chicks out but to have somone talk about why you’re not successful AND they are being factual…the truth hurts more than jokes and insults. However when it comes to diss tracks majority rules and the majority prefers Ether.
No, but seriously I couldnt have said all this any better. I feel the same way.
It Was Written is not “aight.”
“i stopped beefin with niggas, cuz im EHTER to niggas”….game recognize game
Oh, so the same night where King HOV became Nas’ boss? LOL. King HOV won the entire war with the closing bars in “Supa Ugly”. Broke ass Nas didn’t win anything, regardless of what all the blind sheep said back in 2001. And King HOV destroyed Nas on every song they’ve done so far. It’s the ROC in here!
SHUT YOUR BUM ASS UP, GET THAT CAMEL FACE COCK OUT YOUR MOUTH BEFORE I DUFF U
Real talk, come out of mommies basement so I can beat your ass! Clown
???? at the replies
Was supposed to be laughing emojis lmao
Glad they worked it out
Great article
In the context of Black lives matter Movement, I think Jay-Z can be the next Martin Luther King.
? bit.ly/JayZBLM
Lesson number one : don’t get high on your own supply.
I still don’t understand why people keep saying Ether was only about jokes. Yeah, Nas threw in the jokes, but he had facts too. And for those that don’t know, those jokes were really what broke Jay Z down and made him almost cry on Angie Martinez show while speaking about how disrespectful ether was.
The reason does jokes hurt him was because…after Takeover dropped and Jay Z hinted sleeping with Carmen (Nas’s baby mama), she got pissed, called up Nas and told him the things Jay Z is most insecure about. (Carmen spoke on this during a Vlad Interview).. The things that Jay Z had told her in confidence…like how he felt about his fat lips, inability to grow a beard (whiskers like a rat), calling him a camel, girls calling him ugly when he was younger, etc. Yeah, you might not see this jabs as a big thing, but those things hurt Jay…that’s why Nas repeatedly mentioned them at different points on the song. He knew what he was doing. And that’s why he called it ether…the shit that make your soul burn slow. Stuff like that burn your soul longer than jabs about album sales or relevancy in Hiphop.
Bro. You save me a lot of time in writing. I couldn’t say it any better. Jay was trying to be funny, which he was, no denying so. However, Nas wasn’t trying to captivate anybody, those were real-life tales. But I’m glad those two Giants squash that petty ass beef.
Niggaz have sampling either because is the best diss track….
This was one of raps biggest beefs. I was shocked to see it end and hear them on each others albums in 06 and 07.
Not Nas girlfriend his BM step yall journalism up that’s a big difference
SUCH A BIG DEAL!!!!!! OMG how can they live with themselves?! I love how this whole story is dope but some douche always has to come in with some bullshit. Get a life bruh.