Nas, Jay Z and “being real”.

I wanted to initiate what I hope will be a peaceful discussion about Nas. Nas was the first rapper I truly fell in love with, and he was the artist who got me into this genre. I will always have a deep appreciation for him. However, over time, I gradually became more drawn to Jay-Z’s music, and after more than 15 years of listening to hip-hop, I have to admit that (strictly in terms of music) Jay-Z is my favorite. That being said, now that I’m in my thirties, there’s one thing about Nas that I absolutely cannot stand—ironically, it’s probably the thing that people love most about him. I believe that the whole “real, true hip-hop” persona that Nas built during the early 2000s, especially during his beef with Jay-Z, is one of the most fake and hypocritical personas ever created by a rapper. Like many others, when I was a teenager and first heard 'Ether,' I immediately bought into this narrative and started disliking Jay-Z.

Now, let’s consider these Jay Z bars from 'Blueprint 2':

"And y'all buy the shit, caught up in the hype
'Cause the nigga wear a kufi, it don't mean that he bright
'Cause you don't understand him, it don't mean that he nice
It just means you don't understand all the bullshit that he write
Is it Oochie Wally Wally or is it One Mic?
Is it Black Girl Lost or shorty owe you for ice?
I've been real all my life, they confuse it with conceit."

I think those lines are still relevant today, and Nas couldn’t respond to them effectively. In fact, one thing I can’t stand about Nas during those years is his entire narrative about being the 'realest' and representing true hip-hop, while he was doing the exact same things Jay-Z was doing—making hit songs, appearing on the Billboard charts, collaborating with pop and R&B artists to make hits, and making money off his music like everyone else. There wasn’t a single thing that truly separated Nas from all the other rappers, except for his claim that he was different.

In fact, a few years after the beef, Nas was on Jay-Z’s side, and now he’s a capitalist like everyone else—but it’s clear he was like that well before linking up with Jay. He built this whole narrative about being 'the realest' while actually forcing himself into this 'true hip-hop' persona after coming off two of his most mainstream projects ('I Am…' and 'Nastradamus'). Even 'Stillmatic' had songs like 'Braveheart Party' on it. He was wearing chains and other flashy sh*t like everyone else, making songs about women and money like everyone else, and doing commercial tracks like everyone else. He was focused on himself, just like everyone else. You can watch interviews of him in the late '90s where he says he chose Lauryn Hill to make 'If I Ruled the World' because he wanted a #1 hit. Now, you can find interviews where he says hip-hop should thank God for Jay-Z. Today, he’s worth over $100 million, and a recent news report announced that he’s going to open a casino in his own neighborhood. Jay-Z might have 'sold his soul for riches,' and that’s fine, but what about Nas? What are the actual things he did that make him different from other rappers? If you listen to 'Ether,' then listen to his previous album, it sounds like two different people rapping. In 98' he was doing this whole mafioso style with The Firm jumping on a trend he clearly didn't belong to (that album is still Fire I don't care what people say), in ’99, he was wearing a fur coat in a music video with R. Kelly, and two years later, he’s the savior of hip-hop and Jay Z is the fake one?

Honestly, I much prefer today’s Nas (excluding his first two albums obviously) from 'Life Is Good' onward, who has abandoned all this nonsense and now speaks about his life and views of the world without trying to appear like some kind of televangelist who talks about Jesus and poverty while wearing a Rolex.

I think that when you grow up and view this beef with a more nuanced perspective, understanding that reality is much more complex and not just black and white, Nas’s hypocrisy becomes very noticeable. There’s a reason why 'Ether' is loved by teens—because the whole narrative about the good guy, the hip-hop Jedi against the capitalist evil hip-hop emperor, is a simple yet powerful imagery that’s easy to fall into.

Of course, I’m not saying that 'Ether' isn’t a banger, or that Nas didn’t win the beef—that’s more about general consensus and a matter of public opinion, and Ether is one of the best diss oat. I’m just pointing out that many of the arguments people use to highlight the differences between Nas and Jay-Z are based on poor critical thinking and an overly simplistic view of reality, and a lot of lines in 'Blueprint 2' perfectly highlight this exact thing.

I'd love to hear your toughts about this.