(AllHipHop News) “I was Scarface. Jay was Manolo. It hurt me when I had to kill him and his whole squad for dolo,” rapped Nas on “Last N***a Alive.” Those bars represented the God’s Son rapper taking on then rival Jay Z and his Roc-A-Fella crew by himself. But what if Nas had joined forces with fellow Queensbridge emcee Tragedy Khadafi for that battle?
[ALSO READ: Memphis Bleek Discusses Starting Jay Z/Nas Battle]
Tragedy tells ForbezDVD that he believes Jay Z was afraid that would happen, and he purposely tried to prevent him and Nas from teaming up.
“I think dudes fear me and [Nas] coming together. They really do, and they know who they are. I remember one time somebody told me that Nas said that Jay Z said I was talking crazy about Nas at a show. I was like, ‘What the f**k was that about?'” states Tragedy. “I believe Jay probably did say that… It’s dawning on me like this n***a got that little Roc movement going on, and then he see us doing little s**t together. So he’s probably like, ‘I can’t let these n***as come together like that. Theses n***as would crush our s**t.”
During the sit down, Tragedy also discussed his role in the so-called East Coast/West Coast beef and the New York response track “L.A L.A” with Mobb Deep and Capone-N-Noreaga. The “Intelligent Hoodlum” says he approached Fat Joe about contributing to a counterattack of Tha Dogg Pound’s “New York, New York” song and video, but Joe was not interested in taking sides.
“I called Fat Joe, and I was disappointed,” says Tragedy. “I’m not going say Joe is soft, because I don’t really believe that honestly. What I will say is I guess he felt it wasn’t politically correct for him at that time. I do believe that Suge Knight had a part to play in some of the other brothers I reached out to, because he was running around. He was shaking s**t down.”
Apparently, a Prodigy verse was removed from “L.A L.A” and Nas declined to be on the record as well. Tragedy states Esco did not want to be on the track because he was “not feeling” Mobb Deep at the time.
[ALSO READ: Prodigy Talks Performing In L.A. During 2Pac Beef & Getting Love From Kendrick Lamar]
Watch Tragedy Khadafi’s interview below.