Nas Offers an Update on the State of His Rivalry with JAY-Z

In a new interview on The Daily Show, Nas discusses his simmering rivalry with JAY-Z, working with Hit-Boy for four albums straight, and how remaining sharp as a writer required leaving his comfort zone.

Rivalries don't really die. For years, there has been a running joke that JAY-Z likes to try and upstage Nas whenever the Queens legend is about to drop a newalbum or song. It seems like Nas might have heard the whispers.

The rapper recently appeared on The Daily Show to plug his new album, Kings Disease III, the third project in his series with Hit-Boy. 

While on the show, host Trevor Noah asked him about his one-time rivalry with Jay. Noah also made reference to the album's third track, "Thun,"  where Nas raps “No beef or rivals, they playing ‘Ether’ on TIDAL, brothers can do anything when they decide to. In a Range Rover, dissecting bars from ‘Takeover.’ Sometimes I text Hova like, ‘Nigga, this ain’t over.’”

Noah asked Nas:

“Everyone who’s in hip-hop is familiar with your beef with Jay-Z, what it was. And I loved on here that you talk about that beef, what it was, how it disappeared, but how you’ll still text him saying ‘you know this isn’t over right?’”

Nas responded by mentioning something the internet noticed: that the day he dropped the tracklist for Kings Disease III, JAY-Z released a photo with all of his Grammys, via Young Guru.

“When I released the tracklist for the album the other day, he released a picture with all his Grammys... Shout out to him.”

Nas probably should have responded with a photo holding his own Grammy. Back in 2020, Nas was asked about Jay always dropping at the same time he did. At the time, Nas thought little of it, saying: "I think that maybe there's an energy that we both have where maybe we like work around the same time."

Watch his interview with Noah below.