Jay-Z's Subliminal Diss At Nas On Magna Carta Holy Grail

Although Jay-Z and Nas squashed their beef in 2005, there is still that little tention between the two, that make them throw subliminal shots at each other once a while (like on Jay-Z's Success track off his American Gnagster album, where they both dissed each other). I was taking a stroll yesterday when a friend of mine sent me an IM asking who I felt Jay-Z was dissing on Versus; an interlude off his newly released Magna Carta Holy Grail album. I had the album on my phone, so i quickly listened to ithe track. But had to tell him i would get back to him, cos I wasn't too sure who Jay was going at. It sounded like he was going at Lil Wayne, but i didn't believe Jay-Z would dedicate two songs off his album to go at Wayne.

The diss at Wayne on his La Familia song was really obvious, cos even though he didn't mention Wayne's name, it was a direct reply to Wayne's diss to him on I'm Good off Tha Carter 4. So, when I got home, I listened to the song over and over, and I concluded he couldn't have been going at anyone else but Nas. Check out the lines from the interlude below-

Hey sucka nigga

Where ever you are

I thought about ya fool

While I was driving my car

I wonder if you fools

Realize how far

You are

You’re no where in my rare view

Your last shit ain’t better

Than my first shit

Your best shit

Ain’t better than my worst shit

The truth in my verses

Versus

Your metaphors

About what your networth is

The first couple of lines might just be general disses to all the rappers in the industry, just like every braggadocios rapper does. But, the album comparison line is a subliminal diss at Nas. People would say Wayne, but who else would Jay-Z feel he needs to validate himself when it comes to catalogues. He said it himself- "Competition for me...competition is Nas, Eminem." Jay is probably light years ahead of Nas when it comes to level of success, but there is no one that gets compared to Jay like Nas in the industry. When Nas's last album dropped, a lot of people on twitter and the blogs always found a way to bring Jay-Z into the whole matter...comparing their albums. And when CNN put out that article last year proclaiming Nas as The Greatest Lyricist Of All Time, I'm pretty damn sure Jay felt a certain way about that. I remember like 2 years ago, when Jay was asked about Ether during a certain interview, and he said he feels Takeover (his diss to Nas on his Blueprint album) is 100 times better than Ether. This is a sign that, although they are cool now, there is still that spirit of competition beneath the surface.

On the Versus interlude (off his Jay's latest album), where Jay-Z said- "the truth in my verses, versus/your metaphors about what your networth is"- is also a subliminal diss at Nas. The fact that Nas is a story teller, and fabricates a lot of the stories in his verses has always been one of Jay's bigest weapon's against him. Jay used it on Takeover (There's only so long fake thugs can pretend Nigga; you ain't live it you witnessed it from your folks pad/You scribbled in your notepad and created your life)...he used it on Super Ugly (Kick yo little lies, I kick my real facts...When does ya lies end? When does the truth begin? When does reality set it?). 

And lastly, about the last line- "Your metaphors about what your networth is"- that's a shot at Nas's line on the intro of Life Is Good, where Nas raps about his networth ("I remember early mornings, syrup sandwiches, sugar water, yeah... Walkin up the dark stairwells, elevators was out of order, yeah.. Worth two hundred million now, +Bicentennial Nigga"). It's quiet hard for even I, a die-hard Nas fan to believe that Nas is worth $200 million, after all the news about him not being able to pay his taxes. I guess that's why Jay laughs at the end of the Versus interlude. In closing, I strongly believe that Jay was subliminally dissing Nas on the Versus interlude, off Magna Carta Holy Grail album.