loosie: words: War of Words

War of Words

Dame Dash responds to Nas's outbursts.

by Douglas Passion | 2002.10.18

Yesterday, as sweaty New Yorkers sought shelter from a late afternoon cloudburst, the only talk was of the storm raging on Gotham's radio waves. After being denied the chance to lynch an effigy of rival Jay-Z during his SummerJam performance, Nas went on-air to unleash a torrent of venom aimed at Hot97, the concert's organizer.

The rapper-formerly-known-as-Nasty, believing himself a victim of a Def Jam/Roc-a-Fella/Hot97 conspiracy, found himself on WBLS and POWER105 spewing a rambling tirade against the Hot97, Angie Martinez, Jay-Z, Funkmaster Flex and Def Jam. At times incoherent and often contradictory, Nas's voice cracked with emotion as he ranted against the supposed injustices he had suffered.

On Wednesday, while appearing on 105.1, the man who penned the lyrics "Gucci this, Fendi that -- what you expect, ho?" vented on the rampant commercialism in today's hiphop. "I turn on that station and I hear rappers on there talking about their record sales. That's played out. I hear them [deejays] talking about the rims on a truck. What does that have to do with our community?" questioned the artist who so poetically spit "picture me rollin', sixes, money foldin'."

The irony of Nas raging against the horrors of payola while being broadcast on a ClearChannel station was likely lost on most listeners, but one can imagine 105.1 executives nervously giggling, "Hot97 uses payola? How terrible."

"You see," Nas explained, "its a whole evil empire funded by a bunch of other evil empires with Def Jam being one of them who are giving them money to play all their artists records." Unfortunately, as an erstwhile Sony/Columbia employee, Nas's anti-industry claims ring a little hollow.

On Thursday, you could sense the saliva gathering at the sides of Wendy Williams' mouth as she giddily egged on the truculent wordsmith. After being asked if he had paid Hot97's star DJ Funkmaster Flex to play his songs, Nas demanded that Flex pay him for the right to play future Nas songs. "If you see Flex in the street", Nas then commanded, "slap him, snatch his chain and give it to me."

A few hours after Nas's Wendy Williams Show spiel, Dame Dash stood surrounded by a collection of hiphop media at Freeway's "Philadelphia Freeway" listening party. After announcing his "semi-retirement" from the music side of Roc-a-Fella records (citing his inability to provide enough support for the label's numerous acts) and Cam'ron's subsequent promotion to vice president status, Dame was questioned about his take on Nas's statements.

"I think it's hilarious," said a bemused Dash. "I didn't know he'd get that mad. Fuck it".

Without getting into specifics, Dame did little to quell Nas's claims of a Roc-a-Fella/Hot97 conspiracy. "I don't rap, but I can get at him. I knew what he was going to do - it was a setup. There was no surprise."

Not only does Nas now have to deal with Jay-Z, Prodigy, Nature and Cormega, his recent diatribes also won him a few new enemies. Featuring darts aimed at Noreaga, ("You need to step your rap game up"), Cam'ron, ("He had the hot single but his album was trash") and Nelly, ("Don't you ever in your life dis a legend [KRS-1]"), Nas's statements were flush with bitterness. While Dash claimed not to care about his own unit's beef with Escobar, he questioned why Nas would throw around so many names, "That was out of line, what he said about those other people."

Only a scant few hours after hearing Nas's comments, Cam'ron recorded a dis verse over Nas's "Hate Me Now" instrumental in which he mocks Nas's recently deceased mother and threatens to "R. Kelly" Nas's daughter. Things will get worse before they get better.

It's certainly curious that Nas would snap at the pinky-ringed hand that feeds him, but we've recently learned to expect the bizarre from a man wracked by a newfound Shakurian martyr complex. His awkward forgetfulness of his last six years of Mafioso-donning and icing-out tennis shoes aside, he does raise some valid issues about the widespread corruption in the music industry. Unfortunately, the message is ruined by the hypocrisy of "the God's son." But perhaps Nas's berserk rants will help raise the magnifying glass to the sickeningly incestuous fuckery going on between labels and radio stations.