I don’t like to feel that I'm above anybody, but I ’ve been around too long and 50 Cent is too new.I ’m not saying that I ’m not gonna scrap him though, but we ’ll see. I feel like, musically, I can deal with that later.’
That’s Nas’s response to rapper 50 Cent has been calling his name on wax lately. Fiddy’s diss record Piggy Bank included jibes Jadakiss, Fat Joe and Nas’s new missus Kelis. Maybe G-Unit’s CEO should have titled the track ‘Piggy Back’, because, just like his first noise-maker – the 1999 underground bubbler How to Rob – this latest stunt shamelessly uses the names of others to promote Cent. But all props to the dude – he’s wise enough to know that, if you want to cause a commotion in hip hop, you need to be all over Nas, like designer labels on a footballer’s wife.
Nasir Jones sets the benchmark for delivering rhymes. He is arguably the one lyricist standing in the way of rappers aiming to dominate hip hop. Jay-Z knew it back in 2001, but not even could topple God’s Son. Infamous I remember talking to Nas in 2002, a few days after the climax of that infamous battle with Hova, and there was no mistaking the fire in his voice was the same furnace that fuelled 2001’s Stillmatic and put Queensbridge’s finest back on top of game.
As clever as 50’s marketing strategy I can’t detect any fire from Nas today, although he might muster a little to heat up some popcorn, because, according to him, the behaviour of Eminem’s 28-year-old protégé is straight out of a fictional film.
‘There are a lot of CB4 gangsters infiltrating the game at the moment,’ says, referring to the early 90s hip-hop parody starring Chris Rock. ‘You’ve got a lot of real dudes in the business and when some fake dudes come on the scene they are mad at all real guys and they react in the way he’s reacting,’ the 31-year-old ghetto poet continues in his trademark guff tone.
‘He’s out there, posing for cameras like the Incredible Hulk and sh!t, but that muscle is not going to last for long. It’s sad for a lot of real guys. ‘But then it makes me happy that cats like that are not real because, if they were, I would have been dead a long time ago.’
Nas says the bullet-ridden trouble magnet is as fake as the person he ridiculed on his track Wankster, which 50 dedicated to his nemesis Ja Rule. But he also takes time to commend other rappers for being as real as they come.
Step forward The Game. The West Coast MC made no secret of his respect for Nas, and the appreciation is mutual. So much so that, shortly before we went to press, 50 publicly announced that The Game was over as far as any further association with G-Unit. His crime? Saying he had no problems with Jadakiss, Fat Joe or Nas, who he said he wants to make a record with.
‘That’s definitely a project that I would be open to do,’ Nas says sincerely. ‘Whenever time permits, we’re gonna put something together and shock the world.’
Although he managed to sell more than 700,000 copies of his debut The Documentary in a week, many critics have dismissed The Game as hype over substance. However, the Compton G has already convinced Nas that this is not the case.
‘What he’s rhyming about is relevant to both the East Coast and West Coast,’ says Nas. ‘And to use a name like “The Game” was very smart, as he is actually talking about what is happening in hip hop and putting it in perspective.’
Nas puts 50’s long-brewing beef with Game down to the green-eyed monster (not the hulk this time). ‘You can see where [Game] draws envy from his own people, ’ Nas reasons. ‘His stuff is better than people around him.’ Along with Game, Nas praises Cassidy, who he describes as ‘lyrically on point’, and his own artist Quan.
He even says Cassidy's new stuff, which ‘sounds like the old school hip hop,’ is the future of hip hop. These are MCs he’s happy to pass the baton on to.
Fans will be familiar with Quan from Nas’s latest longplayer, Street’s Disciple, and the album’s current single, Just a Moment. The track is the kind of inspirational and thought-provoking tune on which Nas can’t help but shine. But he is the first to admit that his protégé emits a few rays of his own. >P>‘He originally did the song with my boy L.E.S [Nas’s long-time producer] and they played it for me and I was like, “Wow, I need to get on that”.’ But Nas is considerably less passionate when discussing another individual. A bemused chuckle is his immediate reaction at the mention of his baby mother Carmen Bryan and the book she has written featuring alleged details of her intimate relationships with Nas, Jay-Z and a host of other male celebrities.
According to her website, the mother of Nas’s 10-year-old daughter Destiny is going to elaborate further on claims that the Nas/Jay-Z lyrical battle was over her and that Nas cheated on Kelis with her at the peak of the star couple’s courtship.
‘You know what? I’ve known her for a while and because she’s got my daughter I don’t really want to deal with that,’ he says seriously. ‘I worry about her being a good mother – that’s my biggest concern.
Whatever she’s doing elsewhere I can’t stop her. She can say whatever. ‘Who knows, she might even say that I’m an alien too, or that I have a head in my belly and a purple foot. My only concern is that my kid is straight.’
Nas is obviously not losing any sleep over the book. His marriage appears to be an air-tight union. While other rappers may feel uncomfortable talking about their romantic feelings, Nas comes over all mellow when recounting his January wedding to songbird Kelis Rogers.
He says the track I’m Getting Married from Street’s Disciple is ‘very similar’ to the actual day. ‘The most memorable part of the day for me was the preparation,’ he begins. ‘Like getting dressed and making my way to the venue and then the reception.
‘Married life is real G,’ he declares. ‘It’s the way it’s supposed to be and it’s beautiful.’ He’s evidently a man who takes walking down the aisle very seriously, and is a bit disturbed to learn that one of his songs may have been taken out of context to have a negative effect on someone else’s marriage.
Another prominent track on Street’s Disciple is Coon Picnic (These are our Heroes), on which Nas denounces a number of well-known African American celebrities who he feels are sell-outs in terms of how they represent themselves in the media.
Kobe Bryant, Cuba Gooding Jnr and Taye Diggs are some of the names that come under fire. The latter was a victim of racist hate mail, along with his wife Idina Menzel, who happens to be white. The couple, who have been married since 2003, received the abusive material around the time Street’s Disciple was released late last year. ‘God bless Taye Diggs and his wife,’ Nas says frankly. ‘I have nothing against who you love in your life. I prefer black women myself, but I don’t knock anybody else’s preference.
‘If you are a black man, do what you want in this world. They used to kill black men for even looking at white women. So if a black man falls in love with one now… men died just so that union could happen.
‘I don’t knock love. I didn’t come at Taye Diggs because of that. I was knocking the heart and soul of what he is on TV screens.’ Speaking of the small screen, Nas has just written the theme tune to a Spike Lee-directed TV series, Miracle Boys. On a more personal note, he is about to bring to life the character he penned on album track Sekou’s Song.
‘I’m working on a television show and a novel,’ he admits, before back-tracking. ‘I didn’t want to say all of that but the fact is I am, but I don’t want to say anymore about it.’
He is less cagey about an album he is working on for a summer release. It has the working title NASDAQ Dow Jones, which takes its name from the official stock market directory.
‘The full title is just something I used to use to sign off emails and pages,’ he says. ‘I’m just trying to clear the name and trying to get the people involved in those companies and that industry to wanna put money into this project.
‘They can make money out of it too if they want to, I don’t care. Put it into the American economy and then give back to the hood.’
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