Havoc discussed losing a rap battle to Nas back in Queensbridge when they were teenagers.
Havoc says that he once lost a rap battle to Nas before he learned about his talents as a rhymer. The battle went down in Queensbridge when the two were just teenagers.
“I didn’t know he rapped,” Havoc began while speaking with VladTV. “He already knew I rapped, so they was like, ‘bust a rap.’ So I bust a rap, whatever, now he busts his rap and it was like, it was not fair you know what I’m saying? It was like, ‘ah y’all n****s set me up,’ you know what I’m saying? Like this n***a just too ill.”
He continued: “So from there I was like, ‘yo if this dude get a record deal it’s over…Nas come through with the ‘Halftime,’ his shit take off and it was back to the drawing board, but he set a high fucking bar. That bar was crazy, and it was like, I don’t know. You gotta be a bold motherfucker to think that you can even compete with that.”
Nas and Havoc have been close collaborators for decades. Throughout the 1990s they worked together on a number of songs including “Live N***a Rap,” “It’s Mine,” and more.
As noted by HipHopDX, Havoc has said that “It’s Mine” remains one of his favorite songs of his career.
“‘It’s Mine’ happened when we were working on Murda Muzik, and of course, the album wouldn’t have been right without the Nas feature. I sampled Scarface again, and I didn’t even think you could do that again. What was the odds that I sampled Scarface twice and no one has done it yet? It’s just stupid,” he told the outlet last year.
He added: “People were just sleeping on Scarface, so I sampled it, and we put Nas on it, and we made that and if they ask me what’s one of my favorite songs I will always say ‘Shook Ones,’ but then I would always go to ‘It’s Mine.’”
Havoc’s praise of Nas comes as the legendary rapper prepares to release Kings Disease III with Hit-Boy, later this week.
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