Defsounds

Lets travel back in time and dig up something that it seems no one has an answer for yet.

Who defeated who when the 2 biggest New York giants of all time faced off against each other for the coveted crown of king?

We all know when & why it started. But we can only give a subjective opinion as to who really walked away victorious.

What Im gonna do is try to put a third person viewpoint on each mans situation.

Lets start off with the Jiggaman:

NOBODY had the game on lock quite like Jay-Z did. There was a time when he had a top 10 single charting on billboard for every week of the year. Big Pimpin stayed on the hot 100 for months on end. Jay took the rap game from Mean Street to Wall Street. He took the average hustler out of Fubu and put him in Fendi. He single-handedly changed what everybody thought a "Real Nigga" should look like.

Class.
Style.
Swag.

That was Jay.

He defined what it was to be the King.

Except for one little problem…

There was a monster in hibernation that he knew he had to wake up and slay if he was to ever be crowned the true king of New York. And that sleeping monster was Nas.

Jay-Z used one brilliant technique after another to bring down the competition that stood in his way.

He caught a few disses from a then-well-respected Prodigy and used Hot 97s Summer Jam venue to answer those disses back. Those pictures and the bars from Takeover pretty much sealed Ps fate in one night.

Jay-Z also used Summer Jam the year prior to crash-land the career of a rapper he saw on the rise and who he knew could present a serious threat to the throne if something wasnt done soon. A rapper who penned a creative diss song to the entire industry that many heads didnt know about but underground cats were in love with. Maybe you’ve heard of him. His name was 50 cent. 50 would have blew up in 99’ if it wasnt for Jay.

But Jay-Z wasnt happy with his accomplishments yet. He knew that Nas had to be put to bed for good if he was to establish his reign.

Enter- Takeover.

The Blueprint would have been a classic hip-hop LP off the strength of the first 5 tracks alone. Lets admit it people, wether you agree with me or not- that first Blueprint was saturated in soul, funk, jazz, blues and, of course, hip-hop. It wasnt a CD you had to listen to twice to know if you were gonna like it or not. If you liked Jay, you loved the Blueprint. And Takeover was more like an "Im here to stay" record more than it was a regular old "diss" record. It was a benchmark.

It finished Nas didnt it?

It put a fork in him.

It let everyone know that there was nothing Nas could do to get even. I mean, how do you top a Blueprint AND a Takeover?

Nas was done and everyone knew it.

Unless of course he could answer Takeover with a solid diss record and a classic album.

Now- On to Nas…

Half man, half amazin’. When Nasty Nas kicked down the door of rap music he came in with guns blazing. His first 2 albums (in my opinion) were flawless masterpieces that helped shape the direction hip-hop was headed to. Niggas who wanted to be MCs only had to pop in Illmatic if they needed to study the competition. Top that lyrical ability and you might have a shot.

Nas was the kid to challenge if you wanted to be the new bully on the block. You couldnt call yourself the best unless you shut Nas down on wax.

Pac knew it.
Big knew it.
Jay knew it.

But a funny thing happened around november of 1997- Nas put out an album that sucked. We all know it as the collaborative Firm album. I mean, how could you go wrong? You got Nas & AZ doing a whole album with god damned Dr Dre on the boards! How do you fuck that up? Well, I guess by dropping singles like Firm Biz and Your Love Is So Good. The album had a few bangers on it but it was lackluster.

So Nas isnt 9 feet tall and bulletproof?

I still blame him for the jiggy era.

Now dont get me wrong- I Am and Nastradamus were good albums. But they werent classics. And by that time DMX growled and barked his way onto the throne. NOBODY was fucking with X. Except maybe that guy who sold 5 million copies of Hard Knock Life.

Around this time, Jay-Z pushed Santa Clause out of his sleigh and filled everybodys stockings with REAL HIP-HOP MUSIC. It kind of seemed like his takeover was taking over.

He dissed Nas at summer jam.

Nas dissed back with a nice little freestyle that should have been a fore-warning to Jay that Nas still had it in him.

Jay dropped Takeover.

DAMN.

Nas was done.

And then the impossible happened…

"You a fan… A phony, a fake, a pussy a stan"

Ether was the most powerful song (diss or no diss) to ever propel a musician back to the top of the game.

It all but ruined Jay-Z.

Roc-a-wear saw a 60% decrease in sales from 2001-02.

Nas was David standing over Goliath with a fucking mic in his hand.

How do you answer a Takeover & a Blueprint???

You answer it with an Ether & a Stillmatic.

It was like Nas came back from the dead and car-jacked Jay-Z from the throne. And the crown sat well on his head. Nas put out one solid jam after another. It was a good time for hip-hop and a terrible time for Roc-a-fella.

Epilogue:

If you judge an MC by his wealth than I guess Master P is one of the illest rappers of all time.

Jay-Z owns a basketball team. A BASKETBALL TEAM!

Its possible that Kelis could put Nas in the poor house after shes done bringing all the boys to the yard.

But money does NOT define a true MC.

As a Jay-Z fan you could argue that Nas was Jiggas whoopin’ boy at Def Jam and that Jay was the check writer for Nas last 2 albums. Or that, since Gods Son, Nas has failed to put out any material that could be considered classic. (Even though I personally think that the Nigger album was 5 mic shit) Or that Jay-Z was rated #1 by MTV and their round table of hip-hop dorks.

As a Nas fan you could argue that MTV and Vh1 dont mean shit and that Vh1 refused to even play rap music up until a few years ago, so what does their opinion mean anyway? Nas changed the game in 94 from Boyz-N-the-Hood to Sittin-In-the-Park. Which is pretty amazing like when Ice Cube changed the game in 88. And when Biggie & Bad Boy changed the game to Versace and Cristal. But the most amazing thing about Nas is that he changed the game TWICE. And both times he took the spotlight off of the material things- and shined it back on MIC SKILL.

So I guess the all-important question here is- whos the illest?

Jay-Z or Nas?