The boiling pot simmered over when Nas accused Jay of being an “H to the Izzo, M to the Izzo” on a widely dubbed mixtape that circulated back and forth between the streets and the internet. Kelly among others) somewhere along the line beef started brewing. Even though they once seemed like soldiers in the same struggle, and both had done cameos with the same people (Timbaland, Nas, and R. The last straw seems to have been the escalating war of words between Jay-Z and Nas over who was the best rapper in New York. An otherwise good album was roundly reviled by most simply because he did a duet with Ginuwine on “You Owe Me.” Still, some people were convinced that Nas had fucked it up again, and when he released “Nastradamus” later that year in ’99 nobody gave him props for putting out two full-length albums in a year. Again Nas fans felt betrayed, but even though some true gems were lost the version of “I Am…” that was released later was actually his best album in the last five years. Just when the bootleg version of “I Am…” seemed ready to push him back into the stratosphere, the entire album was scrapped by Nas and the label.

Since then, Nas has been up and down a very bouncy road that started with many fans being dissapointed by the follow-up “It Was Written” and then feeling completely betrayed by the terrible all-star collaboration “The Firm.” All along, Nas kept working and writing, not allowing the haters or negativity to push him out of hip-hop. People have been second guessing Nas ever since the “Illmatic” album dropped – a debut album as close to perfection as any rap soloist or group has ever come. Writing off Nas as an MC is a common mistake that has been made one too many times over the past few years.

In the immortal words of Ice Cube, “Oh yeah.

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