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Benzino has hit back at Jim Jones after the latter claimed he was a better rapper and more influential in the hip-hop community than Nas. For context, Jones has reiterated that sentiment multiple times in the recent week, with the first instance being on the Joe and Jada podcast on June 20. Following this, he got into a heated argument with Shannon Sharpe over the issue on the Nightcap podcast episode released on June 22.
On June 26, Benzino took to social media to weigh in on the debate surrounding his fellow rappers. In the video, he began with "enough is enough" before criticizing the internet for "f**king up" hip-hop and the Black community by allegedly contributing to ruining Nas' legacy.
"Enough is enough. Don't y'all see what the f*k y'all doing? Like, y'all really don't get it, huh? Y'all really don't understand how much this f**king internet shit is f**king us up as a people...And this is to the adults...How the f**k are y'all allowing this, man... Let's go to hip hop. This Jim Jones and Nas thing, right? ... Y'all are taking part in, like, really ruining the legacy of this f**king man. This man has a whole f**king legacy. This Jim Jones/Nas s**t wasn't even a debate," he said.
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He described the debate as "disrespectful," claiming it would cause "irreparable damage to the culture." He then highlighted Nas' contribution to hip-hop through his discography and lyrics.
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Benzino also emphasized that his remarks were not meant to disrespect Jim Jones' work. However, he claimed that Jones' recent remarks did not "make sense" when compared to Nas' contributions to the culture.
"Nas is a f**king legend. Nas put in work. Nas is lyrics, and what he stood for, whether it was on the streets or… or diving into the music that his father, who was his father, was a part of jazz, black culture, doing stuff with the Mollies to just basically looking at what he went through and trying to get out people together, and y'all want to ruin that? No disrespect to Jim, but Jim's not even f**king close. The s**t Jim says doesn't even make sense compared to what Nas has done for our culture."
Benzino used this viral debate to call out internet culture, accusing netizens of "ruining the legacy of hip-hop." He described the ongoing debate as "clown s**t," accusing the internet of "tainting" Nas' legacy with this "foolishness."
Furthermore, Benzino alleged that the current conversation surrounding Jim Jones and Nas was "one of the most disrespectful things that has happened to our culture."
Jim Jones claimed his remarks made Nas go viral
Jim Jones has stood by his recent attacks on rapper Nas, which first began during his conversation with Fat Joe and Jadakiss on their podcast, uploaded on June 20.
During the podcast, the rappers spoke about a viral video a a 22-year-old college student claiming they were more influenced by Jones than Nas, to which Jones replied:
“I was a superior Nas fan, but when you get into the game, you realize your idols become rivals. Not to take anything away from that. I developed my own style and my own lane that these kids started to gravitate towards, the same way I gravitated towards Nas when I was younger.”
This topic was revisited during Jim Jones' recent podcast interview with Shannon Sharpe on Nightcap. During the episode, Sharpe asked Jones whether he was "smoking" something when he claimed to be better than Nas, to which Jones replied:
“Nas was nice when I was in high school. Nas was dope. We appreciate him. He had a little bit of a run. But Nas always came up second to [Jay-Z] and DMX and all these other people. He never had that type of influence on us, except for his first album. I used to want to dress like Nas… He had one of the illest albums of all time. I’m a real fan of Nas. But he kind of lost me after the movie Belly and s**t like that.”
The back and forth between Sharpe and Jones heated up after Sharpe claimed Jones did not compare to Nas lyrically, and Jones retorted that he would "run circles" around Nas if the two went head-to-head in a rap battle.
According to HOT 97, Jim Jones tripled down on his claim during his recent appearance on the Bagfuel podcast, released on June 25. During the episode, he implied that the current debate comparing two rappers' artistic prowess has made Nas more relevant in recent times.
“What I did for Nas recently probably has never been done in his life. Last time he was in some viral s**t like this was when he was getting at Jay-Z,” Jones said.
Nas has not responded to Jim Jones' comments at the time of writing this article. The former is gearing up for the release of his collaborative album with DJ Premier, scheduled for release sometime in 2025.
