At the height of their war of words, the new Def Jam Records president fired off at Nas and then suggested the two hit the boxing ring for a rap fight to end all scraps.
He says: “Boxing was a clean way. I wasn’t on the radio, saying, ‘When I see him, it’s on…’ (and be) ridiculous with it.”
The two former rap rivals spent years knocking each other on records and in interviews, but it took Jay-Z’s 2001 attack on The Takeover to really hit home and take the feud to a whole new level.
Jay-Z, who recently signed Nas to Def Jam, explains: “I was in it. I wasn’t viewing it from a statistical point of view… I felt that there were things that were said that was over the line that made me say things that was (sic) over the line.
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“There are unsaid things, like, where you from and where we grew up and once you say certain things, you’ve crossed the line.”
Nas recalls his fans insisted he fight back: “At first, I was like, ‘Whatever,’ but the streets wasn’t letting me let it go like that. Then I had to really pay attention and when I did pay attention I realised that it was really on.”
