Jay-Z recalls feud with rapper Nas: 'It wasn't really personal'

Jay-Z is opening up about his former rivalry with fellow rapper Nas.

In the latest episode of his new docuseries, the 56-year-oldmusicianreflected on being pitted against the Hate Me Now hitmaker after they both emerged on the scene in the ‘90s.

While he acknowledged that the conflict "eventually cooled down," Jay-Z explained that it was "merely like a competition."

“From my lens. I came out with Reasonable Doubt and [Steve] Stoute was in both our ear, whose a friend of both ours. He’s a competitive chap that Stout. Nas comes out in ‘94. I come out in ‘96,” he said.

The Empire State of Mind rapper further said that they “had so much respect for one another,” adding, “It got personal, but it wasn’t really personal.”

The feud began in 2001 after JAY-Z dropped his Nas diss, Takeover.

“It just escalated to a point where it was like a full-on battle. But no violence. Then we just moved on. And now we’re really good friends,” he said.

In 2022, Jay-Z and Nas set aside their long-standing rivalry to collaborate on DJ Khaled's song Sorry Not Sorry.

“Man, it was a dream come true for me, but also a gift to the world. Just to be able to put that together was unbelievable,” Khaled told People magazine at the time.