Nas was caught up in the midst of all the Nicki Minaj x YMCMB x Hot 97 Summer Jam drama on Sunday, as he was scheduled to be a surprise on Nicki’s set. When that fell through, the NY native (who notoriously had beef with Hot 97 in the early 00’s over this very event) stepped up to the plate and did his own set, bringing out Lauryn Hill as his own surprise, much to the audience’s delight. Rap-Up caught up with Nas afterward to get his take on the whole situation. See what he had to say below.

Marisa Mendez


On bringing out Lauryn:

Nicki had asked me to come out during her set and so I figured that would be a great way to go into my show. I only wanted to bring out Lauryn during my set, so she was with it. That’s my sister.

On YMCMB vs Hot 97:

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.

[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.

I think it was just really messy. When you’re in the heat of that moment, no one has time to inform anybody, but [Nicki and I] spoke after briefly and it seemed like it was a crazy situation for her to handle. 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.

Read the full interview here