![]() ![]() We didn’t talk, but he was still alive in the hospital. Tried to squash the East Coast/West Coast beef. “I flew to Vegas to shoot the “Street Dreams” video and link with 2Pac. In a spoken final message, Nas explains the route he might have taken to rebuild what was destroyed: He does make sure to conclude on an inspiring note, outlining his intention to settle the beef with Pac and move forward as collaborators. His assertive tone seems to indicate a deeper knowledge of the topic, but perhaps some topics are better left alone. Nas also makes sure to dispel the rumor that 2Pac was set up by the late rapper Stretch, though he doesn’t elaborate further. As Nas explains, their influence even permeated the East Coast, no doubt fueled by the excellent music Tha Row was dropping.ĢPac and Suge Knight. almost turned half of New York red / Brothers I grew up with threw up they sets / Some even had them Death Row chains hang off their necks.” It’s noteworthy that Nas draws a connection between Suge and the M.O.B - Members Of Blood - a gang to whom police claimed Suge has ties. “ See Suge, he was a dangerous threat,” he raps. What’s interesting is the way Nas recognizes the extent of Death Row’s impact, grounding it with anecdotal evidence gleaned from his surroundings. “ We was tryna squash the whole shit in Vegas / No media to eat it up and leak it in the papers.” “ Before Makaveli the Don left, booked a flight, flying out West,” he recalls. Still, he did intend to squash the feud with Pac, taking the steps to do so. In the second verse, he opens with a bar that basically summarizes that tumultuous hip-hop era: diamonds and MAC 10’s. It sounds flashy, glamorized to those disassociated with the lifestyle, but Nas wishes he had the benefit of hindsight. “ Bunch of ghetto superstars really down to lose it all / Both sides was thuggin‘.” ![]() “Back when Jungle told Pac, “ It’s on” soon as we walk up out this / Picket signs, Outlawz outside the music hall,” he raps, recalling how Jungle stood up to Makaveli. Positioning himself and his Braveheart compatriots as “ the smartest, not hardest,” Nas alludes to his confrontation with 2Pac, which occurred during the 1996 MTV Video Music Awards in New York. Al Pereira/Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images “ At the height of the beef, they started Death Row East / Damn, I even saw their tees on some of my Gs / Notorious label, the story was made in the streets.” “ I had run-ins with Suge, ni**as would’ve been shook,” he raps, alluding to the feud between East and West. ![]() Nas tips his hat to the label’s undeniable presence in the chorus. The New York native transports listeners back to the nineties, when Suge Knight’s Death Row Records was casting an impenetrable shadow over the game - going so far as to extend over the East coast. Perhaps seeking to reshape the narrative, Nas took to the booth and proceeded to paint a picture. On his brand new album King’s Disease II, he continued the tradition with another welcome dose of hip-hop history, “Death Row East.”įans may have noticed that Nas has been opening up about his complex relationship with 2Pac in various interviews in a coincidental turn (or perhaps not) an unreleased freestyle surfaced in which Nas took a few jabs at his former foe. Whether he’s recalling a fragmented memory with startling detail or building an entire track around a fleshed-out narrative, storytelling is one category that Nas has scored a ten on ten. ![]()
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