Nas Talks Will Smith And Jay-Z

Nas was musical guest on Last Call with Carson Daly on Tuesday night. After performing ‘One Mic’, Nas talked about working with Will Smith and sort of talked about the Jay-Z beef, though Carson basically steered his response. For a transcript, read on.

Carson: Give it up for nas, everybody! [ Cheers and applause ] I want
to say thank you for doing the show here in new york. Thank you very much.
We appreciate that. — July 2nd. Tell me about this record.

Nas: That’s really, like, three mixes and just going through all the
albums. You know, like, some of the ’94 era up until now, 2000. You know,
all the stuff that was I doing in between. It’s gonna be, lik remixes and
stuff.

Carson: You are so good at lyrics. A lot of people at home might not
know that you ghostwrite for a lot of people. Who else do you write lyrics
for?

Nas: I have — I don’t do it as much as a lot of other rappers do, but
I did it. I worked with Will Smith before.

Carson: What lyrics did you write for Will Smith? [ Laughter ] That
“Summertime” song?

Nas: No, no, dude is real talented. He really had it together. I just
was vibin’ with him. We worked on “Get Jiggy Wit’ It,” and something on
the “Men in Black” soundtrack. You know, but he’ll put it together. I was
just there vibin with him.

Carson: There’s so much hype, especially in New York, about this whole
battle with you and Jay-Z. [ Cheers and applause ] Isn’t this coming a
long tradition in hip-hop? The battles on wax? Isn’t it just great for
the genre of music?

Nas: It is as long as we keep it on wax, and we don’t take it out of
context. Make it —