S. Samuel
New York rap veteran Nas has stepped up to address new, prevously unreleased footage of a disturbing mock Jay-Z lynching which was set to be unveiled at Hot 97's Summer Jam 2002 concert.
Rather than provide any additional details or discuss his mental state at the time, Nasty Nas decided to ignore the footage altogether.
“I really don’t even want to acknowledge it,” Nas told MTV News on Tuesday. “Everybody’s in a different place. I don’t even want to acknowledge it. I can’t acknowledge that. Jay’s my man, and that’s that, that’s all I’m gonna say.” (MTV)
The controversial video clip began circulating online a few days ago.
Unreleased footage of what was going to be the lynching of a Jay-Z effigy by Nas has released. The fake “Jay-Z” was supposed to be complete with mechanical movements that was intended to be hanged in front of thousands on the Summer Jam stage. Hot 97 of course didn’t let him do that which explains why Nas didn’t perform that year. (2 Dope Boyz)
After Hot 97 denied Nas’ request to stage the hanging during his set, he appeared on rival station Power 105.1 to lash out.
“I been bamboozled, hoodwinked and the whole nine,” Nas told radio host Steph Lova. “I’m here to let my people know that I was dissed this morning and told what I couldn’t do on the show. Which is really outrageous and shows that the wrong people are in power — It’s really out of hand and I’m not going for it.” (Power 105.1)
Hot 97’s Angie Martinez later denied claims suggesting they pulled the plug on him to protect their relationship with Jay-Z.
“Management told him not do it…Nas then decided if he couldn’t do that portion of the show, he didn’t want to do any show. We were not trying to protect a specific artist, this was not about politics, money, nothing. This was just a decision that was made. That’s the truth.” (Hot 97)
Check out the mock Jay-Z lynching footage below:
