An old Nas single going at Tupac appeared online last week and now an old Nas interview resurfaces of him speaking on a conversation he had with Jay-Z.
An old interview with FELON Magazine from 2001.has once again caught the attention of hip hop fans and for hardcore listeners it is an interesting read.
“You know what? I want to talk about this shit with Jay-Z—FELON is a street magazine, and I fucks with the street magazines,” Esco would state. “It’s only right that I keep it real with the streets.”
He revealed that it was while attending a party thrown by Steve Stoute that Jay opened up to him, allegedly stating that he felt he was better than Biggie at that stage in his career and that Tupac and DMX were not lyricists.
“We were kickin’ it and he told me that he’s better than Biggie now,” Nas told FELON. “I looked at him like he was crazy. Then, he started telling me Memphis Bleek was a fan and that I shouldn’t go at him. He predicted that Beanie Sigel would never sell more than 600,000 copies. He said that Sauce Money was to him what Nature was to me. Then, he really got crazy. He said that Tupac and DMX were not lyricists—they just had the hungry, starving street niggas coppin’ their shit—but me and him had all the money niggas buying ours. I told him that I disagreed with him—that Tupac was the greatest ever—period, and that DMX really brought that street shit back into the game.”
At the time, he would also state that he was unaware of what really sat at the root of the beef between himself and Hov.
“I don’t know if it’s over a bitch, I don’t know if it’s over the joint I didn’t do with him, I don’t know if he’s trying to show me ‘I told you so’—meaning that he would be as successful or more successful as me—and if it’s that, it shouldn’t be because I never told him that he wouldn’t or that he couldn’t. All I know is that something is really bothering him and he needs to address it, release it, and get over it.”