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The history of hip hop stars' rivalry

In the beginning of the century one of the essential events in hip hop became feud of Jay-Z with another rapper and actor Nas. This feud was widely publicized and is characterized by different comments both rappers made. The public with interest followed what is happening between two famous figures in hip hop industry. They treated each other with respect in the very beginning and the rivalry began when Reasonable Doubt of Jay-Z was recorded. The vocal sample of Nas was used in it and nobody asked his permission. Nas was greatly upset. Jay-Z made invitation to Nas to re-rap it together, but Nas did not come. Several appointments were skipped. The relationship became worse and worse when at last turned into complete quarrel. Both rappers criticized each other in their songs and interviews. When Jay-Z performed "Takeover" he criticized the other party for their offending attitude, Jay-Z did not like that Nas called him fake. The same offending comments were made about the career of Jay-Z. It was called lame. Nas in his turn answered with his song "Ever", which was the second track in Stillmatic, the album released by Nas in 2001. Ether can be called a diss song. There Nas also implied that Jay-Z was gay. The album had commercial success. Actually, the albums of both artists were sold well at that time as they attracted much attention. Jay-Z responded to it with Supa Ugly, where he boasts of a sexual relationship with Carmen Bryan, a music executive, who shares a child with Nas. It made the mother of Jay-Z angry too and she required that Jay-Z should apologize openly for discomfort caused to the family of Nas. There was really a romantic link but Jay-Z's mother worried about Carmen's daughter Destiny Jones. Later in the interview to Rolling Stone Jay-Z commented that it was quite fair after Nas called him gay. Nas also attacked Jay-Z's fans. New York radio arranged the poll during which the audience had to vote for one of the songs: either for "Ether" or for "Super Ugly". As a result of the poll, the votes divided almost equally. 52% of fans voted for Nas and 48% for Jay-Z. While two rappers returned fire to each other, the album sales were only increasing. But the feud ended without violence in 2005 and both rappers performed song together on the stage. They later collaborated together several times.