On JayZ
After an H.N.I.C. promo tour throughout the Tri-State Area and down the East Coast, in October 2001 I took a bunch of my boys to Puffy’s restaurant Justin’s on Twenty-first Street in Manhattan, down the block from Soundtrack Studios. Drinking champagne while checking out the scene, the rapper Queen Pen spotted me and asked me to dance. More the type to lurk in the cut watching my surrounding, I wasn’t big on dancing, but for Queen Pen I mad an exception. While we were grindin’ on each other, she stated sucking and tongue-kissing my ear. I was a bit shocked. We’d done a song together a year or two earlier and it was strictly professional. After she molested my ear, the DJ made an announcement. “Big shout out to Jay-Z and Jermaine Dupri up in the spot. I see ya’ll!”
I walked over to my people. “Where’s Jay-Z?” I asked, surveying the shadows of Justin’s. “I don’t see him.” So we lined the front door of Justin’s on both sides. We weren’t going to let Jay-Z leave without dealing with us first. “P, we’re gonna beat the lips off Jay’s face soon as we see him,” Godfather, Nitty, and Nitty’s cousin Kiko all assured me. Kiko had a gun and he wanted to shoot Jay.
“No! It’s not that serious,” I said. “We’re just gonna beat him up. Don’t pull that gun out.” Through the crowd, I saw Jay and Jermaine walking with three bodyguards towards us. Jermaine Dupri was aware of my beef with and visibily shook, started speed walking with his bodyguard when he saw me. He quickly hightailed it out the door. Jay-Z spotted us lined up against the door waiting for him. Then from about two yards away, he extended his hand to shake mine.
“It ain’t no beef,” Jay said. “It’s just music, man. No drama.”
“Oh yeah?” I said, shaking his hand.
“I just wish you would’ve spoken to me before you said those things about me in The Source,” he said. “But it ain’t no beef, all right?”
“Yeah, okay cool,” I said, and let him walk out of the club. Keep in mind that I let him walk out. Queen Pen is my witness. I could have changed Jay’s future that night, but I chose not to. Jay put up the white flag and his cop-out made me instantly realize that he wasn’t a threat. He’s just a big ol’ stuffed animal, a camel to be exact. I got serious beef with real gangsters. Jay’s just a waste of time.