A classic. This came out when NaS was doing his thing with Illmatic, New York rap was at its pinnacle. Jay emerges as the new star, and this rubbed NaS slightly the wrong way. They didnt do any songs together, but Jay samples NaS on this track. If you notice at the end of the video jay is sitting around playing cards with some friends, including long time partner Dame Dash….. and a young AZ. AZ is one of NaS crew, and was in his Firm team, an experimental album that somehow flopped despite production from Dr.Dre and a team that included NaS, AZ and Foxxy Brown. “Affirmative Action,” a song from Nas’ second album, It Was Written, featured Foxy Brown, AZ, and Cormega, each taking a verse, along with Nas; it became an album highlight as well as a much-talked-about song on the streets. For The Firm, Cormega was replaced by Nature, reportedly either because Stoute and/or Nas preferred Nature, or because Cormega would not sign a contract with Stoute. Following this replacement, Cormega recorded the inflammatory track “Fuck Nas and Nature” and let it circulate through the mix-tape market.

nas and jay recorded historic hip hop diss tracks, Nas recorded Ether after Jay did The Takeover, which was produced by a young Kanye West!

ironically in 2007, jay signed nas to def jam and they recorded a dead presidents remix.

—

The firm – Firm Biz

the firm – phone tap (dr dre beat)

nas – ether live in central park 2007

making soul beats

Tags: jayz, music, musicvideo, nas