RDAT Tournament – Game 12 – Queens Bracket Final
Nas – Illmatic vs. 50 Cent – Get Rich or Die Tryin’
Before the turn of the 21st century, I had roots in the Northeast and could still afford to take the occasional journey to New York City. Around that time, I recall hearing about a track mimicking Biggie Smalls’ ‘Just Playin‘.
I’d love to say I have a strong memory associated with it, but what’s more than likely is I was driving around late, listening to the radio and the DJ threw on ‘How to Rob’.
The track starts with The Madd Rapper and anyone familiar with late 90s Hip Hop can sense it’s a Trackmasters beat. I’m lost how anyone within the industry could have gotten mad about this track.
Half-assed Internet Research (aka Wikipedia) says that while Big Pun, Sticky Fingas and Kurupt all answered back on tracks, Jay-Z actually enjoyed the track and reached out to Curtis Jackson before responding back.
Ultimately, the track was a success since suddenly an underground rapper was on the lips of more famous rappers across the nation. This would have been ideal hype for an album, but Power of the Dollar was put on hold when, now famously, 50 got shot nine times and dropped from Columbia Records.
Mix tapes over other people’s beats with his G-Unit crew led to his ‘discovery’ by Eminem, signing with Aftermath and the album that truly made the label. Yes, it would have been OK with Em and Dre, but the success of essentially an unknown underground rapper into platinum-selling artist overnight can’t be discounted.
“In Da Club” will remain in rotation for the foreseeable future, but my favorite track from Get Rich or Die Tryin’ is the final one, a bonus track entitled ‘Life’s on the Line’.
50 abandons the slow-paced cadence he uses for most of the album, seemingly returning to his proverbial roots but actually it’s a song from the shelved Power of the Dollar album. So in 2000, well before he had a right to. Curtis prophetically stated his position.
Now here’s a list of MC’s that can kill you in eight bars
50, umm… Jay-Z and Nas
Imma say this shit now and never again
We ain’t buddies, we ain’t partners, and we damn sure ain’t friends
While not friends, both Curtis and Nasir Jones were initially introduced to the general public on a track that was hard to find…unless you knew where to look and listen.
As Jay would famously use in ‘Takeover’, Nas was discovered by MC Serch, but the later clarified that “Serchlite did not own Nas’ publishing and only became a publishing company (in 2013).”
Serch was instrumental in getting him on a track off Main Source’s 1991 release Breaking Atoms and the rest is history.
In his first appearance on wax, Nas immeadiately became one of, if not the best rapper alive.
Street’s disciple, my raps are trifle
I shoot slugs from my brain just like a rifle
Stampede the stage, I leave the microphone split
Play Mr Tuffy while I’m on some Pretty Tone shit
Verbal assassin, my architect pleases
When I was twelve, I went to hell for snuffing Jesus
This was followed by ‘Halftime’, featured on the soundtrack for Zebrahead, an interracial romance movie starring Michael Rappaport and N’Bushe Wright with a 73% rating on Rotten Tomatoes that you’ve likely never heard of before this paragraph.
DJ Premiere told The Source that ‘Halftime’, “was some next shit to me. That’s just as classic to me as ‘Eric B For President’ and ‘The Bridge’. It just had that type of effect…So from that point, it was automatic. You’d be stupid to pass that up even if it wasn’t payin’ no money.”
The money Nas got for his first deal doesn’t compare to the $1 million 50 got from Em to sign with Shady/Aftermath. They grew up about 10 miles apart and rap about similar content, but the comparison ends there.
Martin Kester - My Digital World 