There’s a great interview in June’s edition of King Magazine with the Illmatic one, Nas.
They chop it up about a number of things but Nas did confirm that his lines from his verse on Jay-Z’s ‘Success’ (off ‘American Gangster’) was about his former arch rival.
“On Success, how did you get away with talking about Jay?
What do you mean?
Worst Enemies want to be my best friends…’ Cant you see how people can take that as a diss?
But could you see how Jay couldnt relate to that in his own life with his own situation? Everything in Jay’s rhyme, I relate to. ‘Is this what success supposed to be about?/A bunch of b*tich n*ggas runnign around with big mouths’. I feel that every day. Im sure he can relate to ‘Best friends want to be enemies like that’s what’s in’. We can both relate to one another’s verses. Its about success.
Then you say, ‘I walk into the lion’s den and take everybody’s chips’. It sounds like you’re saying the worst enemy who wants to be your best friend is Jay-Z. And ‘walking into the lions den and taking everybody’s chips’ is you signing a lucrative deal with Def Jam.
Yeah that’s how alot of people looked at it.
So was that line about him?
Of course, of course. But that’s whats big about him. We dont get into the studio and just start rapping about fantasy shit. We talk about shit thats real. it’s not like a blow to nobody: its real. I dont think he would have expected me to say anything less.
We advise you all to go pick up a copy. They chop it up about Big Pun, DJ Premier, Jay, Tupac and Biggie.
