During the seventh episode of the JA\u0178-Z in 8<\/a> docuseries, which aired on Friday, Oct. 9, the 56-year-old “Empire State of Mind” musician reflected on being pitted against Nas, 53, after they both emerged on the scene in the ’90s.<\/p>\n While he acknowledged that the beef “fizzled out at the end,” Jay-Z explained that it “was just like more of a competition.”<\/p>\n “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 rapper said that they “had so much respect for one another,” explaining, “It got personal, but it wasn’t really personal.”<\/p>\n However, Jay-Z added that he was less than impressed when Nas allegedly didn’t show up to a studio appointment where they were supposed to record a collaboration.<\/p>\n “He just never showed up to the studio. And I’m not really a guy like that, you just say you coming and don’t come. Can’t count on him, not gonna ask him ever again. That was that, never asking him again. But not a problem, we don’t have a problem,” he recalled.<\/p>\n A “cold war” of sorts did start after Nas threw what Jay-Z “perceived to be shots” on his sophomore album.<\/p>\n Jay-Z in the early days of his career in April 1996 “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.<\/p>\n Jay-Z and Nas famously set aside any rivalry and joined forces in 2022 on DJ Khaled’s song “Sorry Not Sorry.”<\/p>\n “Man, it was a dream come true<\/a> for me, but also a gift to the world. Just to be able to put that together was unbelievable,” Khaled, 50, told PEOPLE at the time, noting that the project was years in the making.<\/p>\n Nas and Jay-Z, from left, perform together in October 2005 By that time, Jay-Z and Nas had already set aside any drama. Khaled said he got the idea to get the pair on a song together after a star-studded dinner where he saw them “just having the best conversations.”<\/p>\n “It took me I would say maybe four to five years to get the courage to ask. But I knew that day, that is possible, because I felt the love. I asked both of them [about] working on this album. And they were like, ‘Let’s do it,'” he said.<\/p>\n![\"Jay-Z](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/https:\/\/media.zenfs.com\/en\/people_218\/7d3bdcf15059ead975102248884bb32d.jpg\"\/)
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Credit: Nitro\/Getty<\/p>\n![\"Nas](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/https:\/\/media.zenfs.com\/en\/people_218\/47ac68470f475db52f4a5e8eb6974fd8.jpg\"\/)
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Credit: Scott Gries\/Getty<\/p>\n