Rapper Nas won the casino battle over Jay-Z days after Roc Nation’s casino bid was denied. A Community Advisory Committee in Queens voted unanimously to approve Nas’ casino proposal on Thursday.
The “Illmatic” rap icon and Resorts World Casino can now build out a $5 billion resort in the Queens borough of New York City. It will be the largest casino resort in the country.
“There’s a theme in Queens and I know Nas is a part of it,” Queens Borough President Donovan Richards said. “Queens gets the money!”
“Sorry Jay-Z. We win again,” Richards added. “I just had to rub it in.”
Nas announced his partnership with Resorts World Casino in a video in June.
Nas said, “The future is not something you wait for. It’s something you build… We’re committed to Queens and, in Queens, the future is now!”
Last week a different community board in New York City rejected a proposal by Jay-Z and Roc Nation to build a $5.4 billion casino in the middle of Times Square.
Jay-Z and Roc Nation proposed $250 million in grants for Hells Kitchen and promised millions to residents of a housing project that would have been impacted by the casino.
Jay-Z and Nas’ beef dates back to 1996 when producer Ski Beatz sampled Nas’ line from “The World is Yours” for Jay-Z’s track “Dead Presidents II” on his debut album Reasonable Doubt.
A month later Nas dropped his second album, It Was Written, which included a Jay-Z reference on the opening track “The Message.”
Years later Jay-Z dragged Nas on the Kanye West-produced song “Takeover,” off his 2001 album The Blueprint. On the track, Jay-Z calls Nas a washed-up rapper, saying he has “one hot album every ten year average.”
Nas clapped back in his diss track titled “Ether” off his 2001 album Stillmatic.
Among other insults, Nas called JAY-Z a ugly misogynist, and suggested he was a down-low rapper. Nas also accused Jay-Z of stealing his rhyming skills from the late rap icon Notorious BIG.
On his diss track “Supa Ugly,” Jay-Z bragged about his longterm relationship with Nas’ baby mama, Carmen Bryan.
Jay-Z’s own mother, Gloria Carter, thought he went too far. She called into a New York radio station and said her son should apologize to Nas and Carmen.
