During an interview with the Tax Season podcast last year, N.O.R.E. discussed a supposed altercation that took place in the late 1990s between Fat Joe’s Terror Squad and Jay Z’s Roc-A-Fella crew. Even though he wasn’t at the incident, N.O.R.E. spoke about the rumor that the Terror Squad’s Big Pun hit Jigga in the head with a bottle. 

The day after Thanksgiving last year, N.O.R.E. got a call from an unknown number. 

“I picked it up and he said, ‘Yo,’” N.O.R.E. says during an interview with Genius. “And I said, ‘Yo.’ He said, ‘Yo, this is Jay.’ ‘Jay who?’ for arguments purposes, ‘Jay who?’ He said, ‘Jay Z.’ And I said, ‘Whoever this is need to work on their Jay Z accent, because you sound super White. There’s no way you could be Jay Z.’ So I hung up.” 

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N.O.R.E.’s phone rang again, this time from an unblocked number. He picked it up.

“He said, ‘So I hit [Memphis] Bleek for your number,’” N.O.R.E. says. “I knew it was him. I was like, ‘You can’t care about this shit. Like, this is really you. You can’t be taking your time out the day after Thanksgiving and calling me about something I did on a podcast.’ He was like, ‘Nah. I don’t care. I don’t care about the world knowing, N.O.R.E. You’re my nigga. I care about you knowing.’ So I said, ‘How do we fix this?’ He said, ‘Nah. You don’t need to fix it. But if the interview ever comes up again…’” 

N.O.R.E., who raps about the Jay Z phone calls on his “Moments” single, says he kept Hov’s number.

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“I locked the number in,” he says. “I’m never using it. Let me just throw that out there right now. Never using it. I know the Secret Service will knock on my door. ‘You text? Leave Hov alone.’ ‘No I didn’t text. I’m sorry.’”

For additional N.O.R.E. coverage, watch the following DX Daily: