Nas vs. Jay-z beef | Its Hip Hop

On this day in 2001, the self-crowned “King of New York” released his fifth studio LP, Stillmatic. During Nas’s musical absence the power in New York had shifted and Jay-Z had stepped up and eclipsed Nas as the best MC in New York. The title itself shows that Nas had a chip on his shoulder and used this album to show the world who was STILL the best rapper alive out of the five boroughs.

Nas and Jay-Z were in the midst of one of the biggest feuds in rap. With this being the theme of the time, the lyrics of this album carried a malicious flavor. This new side to Nas’ sound is most prominent on the track Ether that is one of the most straightforward diss tracks in rap. The disrespect that was put on on this record makes the Drake/Meek Mill conflict look like a childhood dispute. Throughout the album Nas continues to showcase his no-holds-barred style of lyricism, dropping names of those he feels have disrespected him left and right and setting records straight about his spot in Hip Hop. With every bar, you can feel Nas attacking the game and making sure his place is felt by everyone listening. This album is also a lot less openly righteous than his previous work. Nas is a righteous individual so there will always be undertones of positivity in his work, but on this album, the focus was on the cold and darker side to Hip Hop and New York City in general.

Released on Columbia Records, the album debuted at #8 on the Billboard 200 chart and sold 342,600 albums in its first week. Within a month, the album claimed the #5 spot and was certified platinum on January 16, 2002. By July 2008, the album had sold 2,026,000 copies. This “comeback” album received majority positive reviews from critics. Nas was praised by critics from Rolling Stone, AllMusic and The Source, who gave this album the coveted 5 Mics.

The post Today In Hip Hop History: Nas Released His Fifth LP ‘Stillmatic’ 22 Years Ago first appeared on The Source.

The post Today In Hip Hop History: Nas Released His Fifth LP ‘Stillmatic’ 22 Years Ago appeared first on The Source.

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On the most recent episode of Revolt’s Drink Champs, N.O.R.E. and DJ EFN chopped it up with white rapper pioneer MC Serch, founder of rap trio 3rd Bass and Serchlight Publishing, the company name dropped in Jay-Z’s Nas diss “Takeover”.

With Serch being a living legend in the rap game, there were many historic Hip Hop moments touched on in the interview, including him attending high school with Dana Dane and Slick Rick, his relationship with Eminem and him signing Hip Hop’s second coming of Rakim known as Nasir Jones.

When Jigga sampled Nas’ “The World Is Yours” on his 1996 hit “Dead Presidents”, he insinuated on “Takeover” that he paid MC Serch and Serchlight Publishing for using the sample, thus, Nas receiving no compensation for use of his own voice. Serch says that’s merely rap rumor and if anything, Nas owns a piece of Jay’s catalogue.

“The true story about that that’s really crazy [is] I’m the head of CHR at Def Jam and they’re about to put out Reasonable Doubt,” Serch says. “And it was either Kareem, Dame and JAY — or Dame and JAY — [they] come to my office and say, ‘Hey, you gotta clear this ‘Dead Presidents’ sample.’ I said, ‘OK, no problem, just give me $2,500. But, just know we’re gonna have 25% of your record on the publishing’ and he was like, ‘Alright, cool,’ and that was it. He gave me a check for $2,500. I delivered it to Zomba. But, if you look at the liner notes on ‘Dead Presidents,’ Nas is one of the publishers. So, I said yeah, that line can live as much as it lives, but JAY don’t own a piece of Nas’ catalogue, but Nas owns a piece of JAY’s catalogue. And that’s a fact, though.”

The post MC Serch Talks How Nas Owns A Piece Of Jay-Z’s Catalogue appeared first on The Source.

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