Why ScHoolboy Q thinks Jay-Z beat Nas in their rap battle: “Honestly, I think Jay won”
It’s no secret that Nas is ScHoolboy Q‘s favourite rapper of all time, but that doesn’t mean he thinks he’s unbeatable in a rap battle. In fact, the Los Angeles rapper thinks Jay-Z beat him when they were clashing at the height of their beef.
The TDE artist has constantly showed love to the Queensbridge MC during interviews over years, and also in his music. On the Alchemist-produced song ‘Attention’ from his CrasH Talk album in 2019, he rapped, “Favourite rapper Nas been told me that I’m the best/ Had a couple sessions with Dre, knew I would win.”
In 2014, the pair worked together on the remix of ‘Studio’ alongside BJ the Chicago Kid, which originally appeared on his Oxymoron album. Despite collaborating and declaring him as his favourite lyricist, his bias isn’t enough to admit that Hov defeated him during their feud. Jay and Nas traded various disses over the years on tracks such as ‘Ether’, ‘Supa Ugly’, ‘Takeover’, ‘The Message’ and ‘Where I’m From’, before eventually burying the hatchet.
During an interview with VladTV in 2013, Q gave his opinion on the whole thing. In his eyes, Jay came out on top due to his tenacity and refusing to let things slide. “Honestly, I think Jay-Z won,” he said. “Everybody say Nas won, but honestly I think Jay won. I mean Nas is my favorite rapper, but Jay-Z, he was pretty scandalous. He didn’t let it go. When Nas kinda was letting it go, Jay Z didn’t let it go.”
He added, “He was still throwing a little [jab] out there. And like, adding people to his roster. Nas was going simply at Jay. Like, one time he mentioned someone else, Jay felt some type of way after ‘Ether’. You know what I’m saying?”
Q believes the general public sided with Nas due to him being the underdog, while comparing Jay to NBA greats such as LeBron James, Michael Jordan and Kobe Bryant. “Jay is the best rapper and everybody don’t wanna believe that Jay—even though Nas is my favorite, but Jay, he’s like LeBron, Jordan, Kobe,” he said. “People just wanna say ‘no’ or hate. People just wanna hate on Kobe. Like, ‘He’s old.’ Fuck that, he just had 35 points.”
He continued, “Nas was such an underdog. People wanted Nas to win. But, I mean, at the end of the day, more people said Nas won. So honestly, what I’m saying is kinda irrelevant. I’m just going off what I feel. ‘Cause I think people are caught up in him being an underdog.”
Before releasing Blue Lips in 2024, Q got to play the album for Jay and received feedback. “He was actually listening and yeah, that was all I needed to know,” he said on PodcastP. “I played shit for Snoop [Dogg] before, Nas, all these motherfuckers, never Jay. [Dr.] Dre, played shit for Dre.
“So Jay was just like, a guy I wanted to play music for. [I] played shit for Ye [Kanye West]. So I got to do it and he was fucking with it, you know what I’m saying? And giving me the breakdown and the details of it.”