Memphis Bleek Says He Started Jay-Z's Beef With Nas

If you were listening to hip hop back in the mid to late 90s, then you probably already know this. But for the people that don't know, let Memphis Bleek himself break it down for you. During a recent interview on VLAD TV, he was asked about the beginning of the Jay Z/Nas beef, and he responded with...

"I started that drama so what you mean how I feel about it? I felt like I got my big homie in some shit. It's going down out here in these New York streets. Me and Nas actually never got into nothing. It was all that he say, she say shit so Nas did a freestyle on a [DJ Clue] tape I think that was and they called me, I think I was in the Bahamas, and they hit me and was like, 'Nas getting at you on this joint and he played it for me over the phone. So niggas like, 'Damn, Nas shitting on you?" So then I wrote 'Mind Right' and was like, 'Cool, you getting at me, I'm a get at you. So then when 'Mind Right' dropped, it popped, it did what it did, Nas did another freestyle where he went at Jay, [Beanie Sigel], Freeway, everybody, so he basically opened the floodgate for himself. So once he did that Hov was like, 'Don't worry about it lil bro, I got you,' and then [he dropped] 'Takeover' and here we go... [Nas] didn't say shit, somebody lied, he didn't say nothing about me. That was just me going off that gas, I led it and I let it fly baby."

And to add a little to what he said, he didn't start it all the way...he just gave Nas and Jay Z an avenue to go at themselves. It was bound to go down in the end cos Nas and Jay Z had been throwing subliminal shots each other's way since after Biggie died; Jay with 'City Is Mine' in 1997, Nas with 'We Will Survive' in 1998, Nas again with 'Come Get Me' in 1999, Jay Z with 'Is That Your Bitch' in 2000...and so on and so on. So, it was brewing underground before Bleek got in the mix. And it is all because Jay Z wanted to do songs with Nas and Parley with him right from when he got in the game in 1995, but Nas kept turning him down ("Calling my crib, and I ain't even give you my number"- Nas). And when he got bigger than Nas in the late 90s, he decided to destroy his former idol. Of cos Jay fans will discredit my analogy, but just do your research and read between the lines.

Ron Browz Reflects On Ether Beat

It is funny that a lot of people got to know Ron Browz after he made that Pop Champagne track for Jim Jones...no one really knew he was the one that crafted that Malicious Ether beat from scratch. Incase you don't know, ether is the title of the track that Nas made going at Jay-Z during the Nas/Jay-Z beef of 2001/2002. So, it is 10 years after, and people still speak on which track was better...i mean, from the nas ether track, and jay-z's takeover track, which Kanye West produced.





Below is a recent interview where Ron Browz speaks on the genesis of the Ether beat-

XXL: When you made that beat did you have Nas in mind or was it for someone else?

Ron Browz: No. Me, when I’m doing production I stick myself in a house, don’t go nowhere and make straight beats. It was an awkward, hardcore beat. I kinda played around and rapped on it, me and my friends, but it wasn’t nothing serious going. Hip Hop from Roc-A-Fella, somebody had brought him to my house and I played him that beat I played him another beat. And he actually took these two beats, but I guess it never got to the ears of Jay, but it got to the ears of Nas.

When did you find out that Nas was going to go at Jay on the record?

Nas had that record at the summer time. And he held it for so long. I was like, “He ain’t gon use it.” So I forgot about it, but then Nas called me that winter, like that December. And he was like, “Yo, I need you to come to the studio and listen to what I did to your beat. I get to the studio and he’s just chilling, he was real calm about it. He wasn’t amped. He told the engineer to play the record and my mouth dropped. Nas knew the effect it was gonna have. I didn’t know the effect it was gonna have. And I’m like, “Wow, people gon hate me for this. I’ll never get to work with Jay as a producer. Is Jay gonna feel a way? All them ran into my mind. I got so many phone calls. Work started coming in for me, so it ended up being a positive thing.

Lenny S. said that every time you see him you say that you producing “Ether” may have gotten in the way of you working with Jay.

You know what, you hear so much then you start to believe it. Maybe he does feel some type of way. I’m gonna say he feels some type of way. I never worked with him. I worked with the greatest. Lil’ Kim, Foxy, Nas, Fat Joe, 50 Cent, Jadakiss. I worked with a lot of the top artists. I never got a chance to work with Jay and I’m nice so I don’t get it.

Since you produced it, did you feel like you had to pick sides when the battle was happening?

I tell people, I’m a fan of hip-hop at the end of the day. I like Jay, I like Nas. Did I pick sides? At that time, you already know who won. Once “Ether” came out, it wasn’t even picking sides, it was like which record was harder. “Ether” happened to be the harder record.

Over the years Jay and Kanye have compared the “Ether” beat to the “Takeover” beat—

Kanye know I trashed him.

So you think “Ether” is a better instrumental than “Takeover?”
Come on. I did that from scratch. Kanye sampled it. Come on. My mother can go in the house and listen to a record, chop that, chop that and make that. You know I heard Kanye when he was saying that, “How can people compare them?” I did that from scratch, the keyboard, a drum machine, my drum patterns. That’s me playing the keyboard with the strings and all the additional percussion. And it was hard. That’s a sample. Come on, anybody can do that. Is y’all playing? “Yo, it’s better.” Nah. I mean, I don’t know who produced ["Takeover"]. Kanye know, man. He know deep in his heart what beat is harder. And you can just do a survey.

I think we gon do that on the site and find out.

Niggas gon be like, “That ‘Ether’ was so hard. It was so awkward as a hardcore beat. It was malicious. ["Ether"] by a landslide.


Personally, i think the Takeover beat was more radio friendly...more gimmicky...but Ether beat was straight-up gritty. I think Nas made that beat hot the way another rapper might not have been able to.