Prompt: "A song that has a prominent sample"
Selected by Joe
"Takeover"
Jay-Z
The Blueprint, 2001
I feel like I'm playing catch-up with this shit, but one of the big cultural touchstones of the early 2000s was the rivalry of Jay-Z and Nas. It's not like this happened behind closed doors or existed in whispered rumors in the tabloids. The animosity was so visceral because the barbs were traded publicly in verses of rap songs. There are positives and negatives to it—good that at least everything was out in the open, harsh but honest, that type of thing, but bad because everyone feels like they have a say in what really boils down to a personal one-on-one beef.
There was a "winner" and a "loser," though who's who varies depending on where you go on the internet these 20 years later. My first entry point was Stereogum's Tom Breihan, mainly through the 20-year retrospective for The Blueprint that I read in preparation for writing about that album a few weeks ago. But then also there was a discussion about it a few years earlier than that, when Pusha T attempted to outdo the Jay/Nas rivalry in his diss track against Drake. Breihan made it seem like Jay-Z was the undisputed victor in the battle. But then I'm googling around in preparation for this very blog post, and one web page that attempted to sum up the rivalry made it very clear that they thought Nas' "Ether" was the high point in the back-and-forth. I've actually never listened to "Ether." I'm told that it's a lot of homophobia. So maybe Breihan is coming at it from a vantage point of "Ether" having aged poorly, despite its impact at the time. I myself am not really here to present any type of opinion on "who won," I'm just saying that all of it seems pretty subjective, and somewhat unique in how publicly the whole thing played out.
Listening to "Takeover" certainly seems like I'm listening to a victory, even though I know full well that it was an early escalation of the conflict and not any sort of final say (e.g. this was years before Jay-Z had to publicly apologize for saying that he slept with Nas' child's mother, after Jay-Z's own mom called him out for it). It sounds like a winning punch, and that's what matters in the moment. That might have something to do with the Doors sample. Jim Morrison's has such an otherworldly and outsized presence already, and the fact that Jay is able to rap over that and remain the center of attention in that space is pretty impressive. I know that Joe K*** attempting to write at length about hip hop in any capacity feels uncomfortable as seeing a pig wearing a wedding dress, but bear with me here. The Doors sample gives me an in.
There was a "winner" and a "loser," though who's who varies depending on where you go on the internet these 20 years later. My first entry point was Stereogum's Tom Breihan, mainly through the 20-year retrospective for The Blueprint that I read in preparation for writing about that album a few weeks ago. But then also there was a discussion about it a few years earlier than that, when Pusha T attempted to outdo the Jay/Nas rivalry in his diss track against Drake. Breihan made it seem like Jay-Z was the undisputed victor in the battle. But then I'm googling around in preparation for this very blog post, and one web page that attempted to sum up the rivalry made it very clear that they thought Nas' "Ether" was the high point in the back-and-forth. I've actually never listened to "Ether." I'm told that it's a lot of homophobia. So maybe Breihan is coming at it from a vantage point of "Ether" having aged poorly, despite its impact at the time. I myself am not really here to present any type of opinion on "who won," I'm just saying that all of it seems pretty subjective, and somewhat unique in how publicly the whole thing played out.
Listening to "Takeover" certainly seems like I'm listening to a victory, even though I know full well that it was an early escalation of the conflict and not any sort of final say (e.g. this was years before Jay-Z had to publicly apologize for saying that he slept with Nas' child's mother, after Jay-Z's own mom called him out for it). It sounds like a winning punch, and that's what matters in the moment. That might have something to do with the Doors sample. Jim Morrison's has such an otherworldly and outsized presence already, and the fact that Jay is able to rap over that and remain the center of attention in that space is pretty impressive. I know that Joe K*** attempting to write at length about hip hop in any capacity feels uncomfortable as seeing a pig wearing a wedding dress, but bear with me here. The Doors sample gives me an in.
So too does the fact that the emotions that Jay-Z and Nas demonstrated in their jabbings are pretty universal, as far as the human condition is concerned. Who among us hasn't been hurt by a peer, and felt like they needed to respond back in kind? I've been there. It hurts, man. I know when it comes to male bravado there's a lot of chest-puffing and peacocking, and neither Jay-Z nor Nas would ever admit to it, but I have to imagine that, privately, there were hurt feelings. Even if you know you're right, even if you weren't the aggressor, even if you are only spitting truth, at the end of the day, someone talking shit about you just feels real fucking bad, man, regardless of context, and maybe especially in this particular context.
At the risk of getting laughed out of the room, I'll say it anyway: not sure why humans have to be so mean to each other, and I'm not sure why Jay-Z and Nas in particular had to be so mean to each other in this particular way. I mean, I know why—hatred equals exposure equals large amounts of cash. That's cynical and true, just like how it's cynical but true how their "making nice" years later also had a lot to do with dollar signs. But still. Still. Can we just acknowledge, here on private on this blog that only our friends read, that being in the situation that Jay and Nas were in really fucking sucks? Like on a personal level. I know, they can dry their tears with $100 bills, right, right. I'm not talking about that. I'm talking about the mythologizing of two grown men publicly talking shit on each other, and valorizing that act. Saying mean things about another person as a career. Something about it feels off to me. Not for Jay-Z or Nas, who were only acting like every other human on earth would act in a similar situation. More for the audience, me and you, how we see the hate and we crave more. I laughed when I read about Gloria Carter yelling at her son on the radio, not gonna lie. But that's akin to cheering on the gladiators in the colosseum as they tear each other to shreds. A certain bloodlust that makes me queasy, even when I'm actively participating in it.
Anyways, this is a good song. Impressive sample.
At the risk of getting laughed out of the room, I'll say it anyway: not sure why humans have to be so mean to each other, and I'm not sure why Jay-Z and Nas in particular had to be so mean to each other in this particular way. I mean, I know why—hatred equals exposure equals large amounts of cash. That's cynical and true, just like how it's cynical but true how their "making nice" years later also had a lot to do with dollar signs. But still. Still. Can we just acknowledge, here on private on this blog that only our friends read, that being in the situation that Jay and Nas were in really fucking sucks? Like on a personal level. I know, they can dry their tears with $100 bills, right, right. I'm not talking about that. I'm talking about the mythologizing of two grown men publicly talking shit on each other, and valorizing that act. Saying mean things about another person as a career. Something about it feels off to me. Not for Jay-Z or Nas, who were only acting like every other human on earth would act in a similar situation. More for the audience, me and you, how we see the hate and we crave more. I laughed when I read about Gloria Carter yelling at her son on the radio, not gonna lie. But that's akin to cheering on the gladiators in the colosseum as they tear each other to shreds. A certain bloodlust that makes me queasy, even when I'm actively participating in it.
Anyways, this is a good song. Impressive sample.
1 comment:
I like this commentary and for the record, I find a pig in a wedding dress to be absolutely delightful. It's your big day, pig! Congratulations!
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