Strong criticism from MC Shan toward Nas has prompted Fat Joe to join the conversation. The insults started last month after Shan called out Nas for not including him in the lineup for the Mass Appeal concert being held at Yankee Stadium for hip hop’s 50th anniversary.
Fat Joe’s defense of the Queensbridge rap legend comes after Shan started posting his grievances to Instagram in July. The post from the former Juice Crew legend read: “I’m sitting here hearing that Nas is doing these motherf**kin’ 50th anniversary shows, right? Nas, if you doing 50th anniversary shows and you ain’t holla at ya mans, let me tell you something, my n**ga, don’t never mention my motherf**kin’ name again.”
Joey responded to these comments in an Instagram post by saying that he heard that Shan was “impossible to deal with.” The Terror Squad artist also compared the situation to a time when a notable unnamed hip hop star had an offer to have a street named after him in NYC rescinded because the star requested a $50,000 payment to accept the honor.
In the video, Joe stated: “I did my little one-two journalism, a.k.a. getting to the bottom of it, and they say [MC Shan] is kinda impossible to deal with. They tried as much as they can… Sometimes, unfortunately, our pioneers stand in the way of their own bag. I do not know why. I have spoken to them over and over again … I’m doing just fine, but my pioneers — I wouldn’t be here if it wasn’t for the pioneers. So sometimes when I can talk to them, I sit down and be like, ‘Yo, you can’t get the bag doing this and that.'”
Nas has been involved in several campaigns for hip hop’s 50th anniversary alongside Mass Appeal. He has not yet responded to Shan’s latest comments.
In the past, Nas has publicly acknowledged MC Shan’s contributions to the music industry on multiple occasions with the most recent time happening on “The Late Show With Stephen Colbert” in February. During his appearance on the show, Nas recited lyrics from the 57-year-old’s classic 1985 song “The Bridge” and remarked that it was one of his all-time favorite rap songs.
Peep what Joe had to say about this situation here.