ALL THINGS 90's/00's (Q&A)

Rap Beef (Nas Vs. Jay Z)

Who won this beef?
Jay Z Vs. Nas

For almost a decade, two of rap's most decorated emcees went at each other's throat. They started off with subliminal jabs and moved up to body shots.

1996: Nas was one of the best rappers around with debut Illmatic. Ski Beatz samples a Nas line from "The World is Yours" (Pete Rock remix) on another Jay Z song, "Dead Presidents II." Nas' second album, It Was Written, arrived a month later. The album opener "The Message" includes the first of many perceived subliminal shots at Jay Z: "Lex with TV sets the minimum." I guess people took it as a jab since Jay Z always talked about Lexs or some shit. Later on Nas confirmed that the line was inspired by Jay Z as he saw him driving one.

1997: Jay Z samples Nas' voice again on "Rap Game/Crack Game" and everyone seemee to like it. On "Where I'm From," Jay also drops a reference that many believe to be his first jab in the battle: "I'm from where ni--as pull your card, and argue all day about/Who's the best MC's, Biggie, Jay-Z, and Nas."

1999: They took more jabs at each other that year and Jay Z protege Memphis Bleek's debut single from Coming of Age is a song titled "Memphis Bleek is...," which seems to ape Nas'

2001: Jay Z and Nas continue to trade shots well into the new decade. Jay launches his first direct attack on Nas at Hot 97 FM's 2001 Summer Jam. Jay calls out Nas with one suave bar at the end of "Takeover": "Ask Nas, he don't want it with Hov. NO."

Nas swiftly responds with a scathing freestyle over Eric B & Rakim's "Paid in Full." On the freestyle later dubbed "Stillmatic" According to Nas, Jay is a fake hustler, a liar, a phony. Nas questions Jay Z's sexuality, dubs him the "fake King of New York" and mocks him for sampling his songs ("I count off when you sample my voice.")

Jay Z creates the song Takeover and Nas responds back with the song Ether, which blew up.

2002: Jay Z continues his attacks Nas on "The Blueprint 2," the title track from his 2002 album. He claims that he's more generous than Nas and questions Nas' street credibility again. Nas doesn't respond with a full diss like "Ether." Instead, he sums up the "Jigga war" on "The Last Real N---a Alive."

2003: Jay Z goes on BET's Rap City and freestyles a response to Nas' Made You Look: "They shootin'/But nobody dyin'/Somebody's lyin'." Meanwhile, Nas opens on the Lil Jon-produced Bravehearts single "Quick to Back Down" with a subliminal shot at Jay: "First of all this is Nas, I'ma Braveheart veteran/And y'all already know who I'm better than"

We can't forget about Nas baby mama, Carmen sleeping with Jay Z though. 😐😐. I don't know what year that was in. Who won this beef?