Maxy

On Thursday, October 27th, at the Continental Airlines Arena in East Rutherford, New Jersey, the current home of the New Jersey Nets, hiphop history was made. It was 11.25pm, two hours into Jay?s ?I Declare War? concert sponsored by Power 105.1. Jay was onstage, moving through the Oval Office-themed stage?a rug with a presidential seal, a desk with two green banker?s lamps and an all-red phone, and two secret service-like men standing still at the back of the stage. He was doing his classic ?Where I?m From,? from In My Lifetime Vol. 1. He rhymed, ?I?m from where niggas pull your card/ And argue all day about who?s the best MC/ Biggie, Jay-Z, or Nas.? Then he abruptly told the DJ to stop the record. The concert was called ?I Declare War? because Jay had promised to diss some rappers, to damage some careers. Now, the crowd thought, Jay will deliver on his promise of war. Four years before at a radio station-sponsored concert in New York Jay unleashed ?The Takeover,? a song dissing Nas (a.k.a. Esco, after Columbian drug lord Pablo Escobar) and Mobb Deep. A venomous and all too personal battle ensued between Jay and Nas, who came back attacking ?Gay-Z and Cock-A-Fella Records? on ?Ether.? Jay feels he won the battle though he knows many people think Nas won it. ?I think if you judge ?Takeover? against ?Ether,? it?s a better record,? Jay said. ?But when you have a David and Goliath situation, it?s tough to win those things when you win everything.? Many people were offended by Jay?s rhymes in ?Superugly,? his underground reply to ?Ether,? where he spoke in graphic detail about having sex with the mother of Nas?s daughter, but Jay felt justified to say anything after ?Ether,? where Nas slings several gay slurs. ?If you listen to ?Ether,? like d!ck sucking lips and sh!t like that, as a man you don?t say that to another man,? Jay said. ?I would never tell a man, yo suck my d!ck. I would never say nothing like that to a man unless I planned on goin all the way with him.?

Now, with the music stopped, the 20,000-deep crowd breathed deep and wondered who would be attacked this time?

?This was called I Declare War,? Jay said. ?I was gonna lay a motherfcuker out. But as this was coming together I seen the LOX perform with Puff.? The mogul and the group fueded years ago but did ?It?s All About the Benjamins? together at the concert. ?I seen the return of Beanie Sigel.? Since the breakup of Rocafella it was uncertain if their friendship had ended. ?And I just said fcuk it. It?s bigger than I declare war. It?s like the motherfcukin President presents the United Nations.? The crowd sensed that something colossal was about to happen. ?So you know what I did for hiphop?? Jay said. ?I said fcuk that sh!t. Let?s go, Esco.? And at 11.36pm, a man rose up into view at the top of the stage. Nas!

The crowd went wild. The hiphop titans were together onstage, their beef officially over. Jay had promised war but had brought something far more precious: peace. Nas walked down the stairs at the side of the stage toward Jay in a military green jacket and hat, the way he dressed circa his 1994 classic debut album, Illmatic. Jay went into ?Dead Presidents? from Reasonable Doubt, a song which samples Nas for the chorus. But now Nas did the chorus live, then went into a rhyme from ?The World Is Yours,? (from which ?Dead Presidents? took its chorus). At the end of the song they shook hands, then stood side by side facing the crowd, taking in the long, thunderous standing ovation from the shocked thousands.

?This is hiphop history,? Nas told the crowd. ?Niggas is makin money and still mad at the world? This is all about peace. We savin the East Coast!?

?All that beef sh!t is wack,? Jay said. ?Let?s get this money.?

Days later Jay was typically understated. ?That was some little sh!t,? he said. ?Don?t make it a big section at the end of the article.? But Nas feels it was a major moment. ?That was the highest mountain ever climbed in the game,? he said. ?The feeling was beyond words.? Nas said the reconcilliation began when he realized he was nearing the end of his deal with Columbia and started thinking about signing with Jay?s label. ?Def Jam is somewhere where the understanding of our culture is respected,? Nas said. ?I?m all for people who love the music to control it. That was what I was wantin to get into and just by explorin what was out there, this conversation [with Jay] came about. It just felt like time.? Nas and Jay met a few weeks before the concert. ?It was a conversation that was long overdue,? Nas said. ?There was a lot of laughter and a lot of serious conversation where there?s no laugh or smile. It was a meeting of the minds and reconcilliation.? He feels that hiphop has become overrun with beefs and battles. ?Ever since me and Jay started our thing, the whole thing has been battles,? he said. ?Just about every MC got a beef with another MC. Everybody. Which is cool, could be creative, but uplifting is what the nature of hiphop is about and I think people are forgettin where to draw the line. That beef sh!t is played out.?

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