Dame Dash Says JAY-Z’s Apology to Nas Made Him ‘Look Crazy’
On podcast The CEO Show, Dame Dash reflected on the years-long beef between JAY-Z and Nas, pointing the blame at Irv Gotti for Hov apologizing to Escobar on Hot 97.
Dame Dash still has some thoughts on the old beef between JAY-Z and Nas. The co-founder of now-defunct label Roc-A-Fella recently appeared on podcast The CEO Show where he discussed Hov’s apology to Nas while on Hot 97 in 2001.
Admitting that the feud went “too far,” at the time Hov shared his regrets on dropping Nas diss track “Supa Ugly,” where JAY spoke openly about his affair with Carmen Bryant, the mother of Nas’ daughter. To his mother’s request, Hov ultimately apologized for the harsh move.
“Mom put in a call and said, ‘That went too far.’ And she’s never, ever called me about music,” JAY-Z said on-air. “So I was like ‘Okay, okay, okay. I’ll go shut it down.'”
He added, “Once again, I apologize. I felt like I didn’t think about women’s feelings or [Bryant’s] feelings, or even my mom. It was really like, ‘Let me meet your level of disrespect with this level of disrespect.’”
However, Dash sees the moment differently, as Nas previously mentioned Hov on diss track “Ether.”
“When he apologized and s***, I was like, ‘No!'” Dash said on The CEO Show. “I was hitting him from the thing like, ‘Get off the radio! We looking crazy!’ And Irv did that s***. A Queens n****, he gave him — pause — the banana in the tailpipe. That was a Queens thing — he didn’t even see that. Yo Irv, stay out my business.”
Earlier in the conversation, Dash revealed that although Nas also fired at him on “Ether,” that he didn’t take offense.
“I was in shock but I was happy. I wasn’t hurt,” he said. “I’ma tell you right now what happened. I was hyped that he said my name but also I knew what homie was doing and I thought it was a distraction. I’m like, ‘This is bubblegum s***.’”
Hov and Nas would publicly make up during the New Jersey stop of Hov’s I Declare War tour in 2005. The first time the two would officially collaborate was on “Black Republican” from Nas’ 2006 LP Hip Hop Is Dead. The two last worked together on “Sorry Not Sorry” with James Fauntleroy (and additional vocals from Beyoncé) in 2021.