What's Beef.......

So a lot has been said about this Jigga/Nas thing, and I'm not here to go over old ground which I covered back in this post .

What I will say is that their first joint interview makes interesting reading. Now some industry heads have come out and said "I can't believe Nas bounced to Def Jam and is working for Jigga, what a stupid move, dignity, respect blah blah blah"...or words to that affect anyway. Now I just want to break this down a little bit so bear with me.

Now Nas has signed a deal which could potentially make him millions of dollars.

His name is now on everyones lips as let's face it, Jigga is like a hip-hop prophet these days and Def Jam is the place to be.

Nas get's access to Jay's unbelievable ear for beats and access to pretty much any Def Jam artist to work with.

So as far as I can see Nas has a fair idea what he's doing. Now with that out of the way, the interview certainly did make interesting reading. It's obvious that the two had/have a lot of respect for eachother and that this isn't a ploy, this beef thing is really over. Now for everyone who is fronting on this, how is this a bad thing? We got some great music in 'Takeover' and 'Ether' and now we're onto phase two, which sees two of the hottest mcs from the past decade work with eachother. I mean, for those people saying they both sold out their values; what the fuck did you want? You wanted to see them take it out to the streets and shoot shit up? You wanted to always wonder what it would be like if they could settle their differences and work together? You wanted the world to look at hip-hop and say "oh look two more walking dead men"? Get a fucking grip. Nobody has sold out so go listen to your One.Be.Lo album and rep how underground you are.

One of the most interesting things about the interview was Nas insisting that he does not have a problem with a certain Mr Curtis Jackson. Now this is surprising considering his veiled barbs on 'MC Burial', either way I think he needs to step away becuase the way to hurt Fifty is not give him even more exposure by trumped up beefs. I would say the same about Jigga and Cam considering it's a blatent attempt from Cam to generate hype for "Killa Season". However, will it harm Jigga's credibility not stepping up?

One thing I will say though, I have no interest in seeing Nas work with Dre. I don't think it will work and the prospect doesn't interest me in the slightest. Nas/Primo of course, Nas/9th Wonder definately (God's Stepson was dope), Nas/Kanye maybe but Nas/Dre won't work. Jay/Dre I would definitely be interested in, but we know it's all hype anwyay.

The union of Nas/Jay has probably asked more questions than answer them. Will Nas inherit the Cam beef and Jigga inherit Fifty? Will Nas/Primo get the chance to work on a full album now Nas is on Def Jam? Will Jigga pick the beats for said project? Will Nas's album be an overproduced hunk of crap with big name producers and not a lot else?

Who knows, but I for one am enjoying the ride....


Now just to prove Nas isn't sitting around and counting his new found wealth all day:

Nas - Jackin 4 Beats 2006

Tags - Hip Hop, Jay-Z, Nas, Def Jam

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