S. Samuel
Rap veteran Nas has offered his two cents on the current tensions boiling between Nicki Minaj's Young Money family and iconic New York radio station Hot 97 after Sunday's Summer Jam incident tore the two sides apart.
Having previously had problems with Hot 97 during the heat of his early 2000’s feud with rap mogul Jay-Z, Nas said these types of things are only natural in the entertainment industry.
“I’ve been there before and things like that happen every couple of years. I guess this is the second time something has happened like that between the artist and the radio station. We don’t always agree and the nature of hip-hop can be aggressive and get real gangsta on you now and then. That’s just what it is. These things happen,” Nas explained. “[YMCMB’s] situation was different than mine and I’m not clear on all of it, but of course when it happened with me years ago, it was based on the Jay-Z drama and a whole bunch of other stuff. Her situation is based on something different between her and her camp. Eventually I got cool with Hot 97 and they got cool with me. It’s one hip-hop family, and that’s how it should be at the end of the day.” (Rap-Up)
God’s Son also addressed whether or not he spoke to Minaj following Sunday’s publicized no-show.
“I think it was just really messy. When you’re in the heat of that moment, no one has time to inform anybody, but we spoke after briefly and it seemed like it was a crazy situation for her to handle,” he added. “When put in that position, it’s no easy thing and I guess I was in support of her, in support of Hot 97. I’ve been there before, so at the end of the day, it could be fixed. It’s one hip-hop family, let’s unify it.” (Rap-Up)
Back in 2002, Nas publicly called out Hot 97 after getting denied permission to stage Jay-Z’s death during his Summer Jam set.
The most iconic moment in Summer Jam history has to be Jay-Z unveiling “The Takeover” in 2001, but the next year, when Nas was scheduled to headline, he planned to figuratively bury Jay onstage in retaliation. When the station declined the stunt, Nas refused to show up for his set, instead heading to rival station Power 105.1 to blast Hot 97 for their lack of support and bias towards Jay. Fortunately, Nas returned to Summer Jam in 2012 as a surprise headliner and, along with Lauryn Hill, dominated. (Rapfix)
This week, Minaj opened up on Hot 97 radio host Peter Rosenberg calling out her “Starships” record at the event’s pre-show festivities.
“I wasn’t going to do ‘Starships’ and I think everybody knows that,'” Minaj told hosts DJ Envy, Charlamagne Tha God and Angela Yee. “I’m way smarter than that. I know what people wanted to see. I think it was just someone trying to be sarcastic — it was improper timing, it was in bad taste. Everybody makes mistakes but you’ve got to own your mistake. That’s the problem. When you don’t own it, then people feel like, ‘Oh, okay, you feel like you can do this in the future and get away with it,’ and that’s the problem. … I don’t want an apology. I don’t care about an apology. … ” (“The Breakfast Club”)
