Classic War Of Words To Remember…
In what the rap critics view as one of the most highly publicized rap feuds in Hip Hop history, NYC’s finest Jay-Z & Nas have introduced the rap world to another level of high octane craftiness and lyricism. The two Hip Hop giants had beef with one another since the early rising of their careers, thanks to what many assumed as imitation of smiliar beat sampling, flow stealing and swagger jacking. But their war of the words didn’t become public to the rap world until December 11, 2001. Former Hot 97 host & current Power 105.1 radio personality Angie Martinez debuted the counter jab freestyle entitled “Super Ugly”, a controversy follow up to Jigga’s classic diss track “Takeover”. Hov used a smooth transition of beats as he started his flow gunning at Young Escobar on “Got Ur Self a Gun” instrumental produced by The Megahertz from Nas’s critically acclaimed Stillmatic album. Jay then decided to insert the Dr. Dre produced track “Bad Intentions”, and that’s when Young Hov took disrespect to a whole new level. The Roc-A-Fella bred runner decided to add more fuel to the fire by exposing his brief sexual encounters with Nas’s baby mother, Carmen Bryan.
Me and the boy AI got more in common than just balling and rhyming
Get it? More in Carmen
I came in your Bentley backseat, skeeted in your Jeep
Left condoms on your baby seat
Huge signs of disappointment and disbelief came towards Jay’s camp as many listeners including certain family members believed that Jay-Z took it way too far. In fact, Jay-Z’s mother Gloria Carter was amongst the listeners and decided to reach out to her son to force him to apologize to NaS and his family. Jay decided not to perform his mother’s request but instead called Angie Martinez on Hot 97 to give an public apologize to Carmen and any female listeners who were offended. But after the dust and smoked cleared up, the rap universe decided to vote on who was the winner of this epic lyrical warfare. Hot 97 decided to have their listeners vote and with 58 % of the public votes, fans believed NaS was the victor over Jay-Z in the war of words.
If Hip Hop heads needed to be reminded why the public felt like NaS won this battle, the classic and highly touted diss song known as “Ether” won NaS a huge amount of respect and admiration amongst his fans and fellow rap peers. Dubbed as argubaly the greatest diss song in rap history, Mr. Olu Dara Jones just strategically devoured Jay-Z and some of the members of the Roc-A-Fella camp. From throwing shots at Jay’s street credibility in the bars…
“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”
To calling out Jay’s unattractiveness and his rumored affair with Foxy Brown…
“You seem to be only concerned with dissin’ women/ Were you abused as a child, scared to smile, they called you ugly?” and “Foxy kept you hot, kept your face in her puss/ What you think you gettin’ girls now because of your looks?”
The Queens vet had the rap game in complete awe, showcasing how he was able to send some merciful shots at the Brooklyn god emcee everyone thought of as “rap’s untouchable”. NaS bar for bar skill and craftiness on the track even had rappers from a rival camp idolizing and witnessing the impact it would cause in Hip Hop. A prime example of this is Jay’s protege, Memphis Bleek. He came out and said
When [Funkmaster] Flex played it, I ain’t going to lie, I admitted to myself and had to tell the big homey he got us, he got one up on us. That shit was cooked crack cocaine right there. Like it was no denying that record was hot as fuck, it was a bunch of lies on that record, but it was still a hot record. One that is going down in history, you know what I mean.
Years later, NaS & Jay-Z decided to end their beef in front of a sold out crowd at the Continental Airlines Arena in East Ruthorford, New Jersey for Jigga’s “I Declare War” Tour. The epic moment came when Hov decided to flip the script on the idealogy of his tour, which was suppose to be created to expose rappers he had beef with. Instead, Jigga decided to explain to fans that he wanted to convey some unity and that the night was bigger than declaring war. As soon as he finished his speech, one of the greatest moments in Hip Hop was witnessed. That night the two NYC rap icons stood together on one stage as Hov said on the mic “All that beef sh–is done, we had our fun, let’s get this money.” The two officially squashed beef and went onto continue to have outstanding, legendary careers. Even though, the war of words between the two were lyrically gruesome, the rap feud between QB’s finest and Marcy Project’s own innovated the rap game in showing fans that you can spit a mean 16 at your enemy and will not get shot at for expressing yourself through the power of the pen. Thank you Mr. Jones and Mr. Carter for bringing an epic bar for bar rap feud that will be talked about for generations to come. The real Hip Hop heads truly appreciate it, and will forever remember one of the best battles of all time. SALUTE!
-Omari White (@SmooveGuyO)
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