Nas Recalls Clashing With 2Pac in '96: 'He Thought I Was Dissing Him'

Nas sat down for an interview on HOT 97 to talk about the time he and 2Pac confronted each other over what appeared to be a complete misunderstanding. Shortly after the release of Nas' second studio album It Was Written, tensions between the two rappers started to bubble. Eventually they clashed while Pac was in New York, and Nas broke down why they both felt they had to address the situation.

As both Ebro and Nas mentioned during the interview, Snoop Dogg actually told the story before, but Nas remembered it differently. "He had it wrong a little bit," he said of Snoop's retelling of the story. "[Pac] was in New York and there was a lot of tension flaring," Nas continued, mentioning how he first bumped into Pac backstage at an awards show. "Where I was coming from really wasn't an all love place 'cause there was a rumor Makaveli [was] coming out, so I really wanted to check the temperature with him."

Pac took some shots at Nas on the record, which went on to be his final album completed during his lifetime. "It was necessary for us to address the situation... We had to step to our business," he said, explaining how there was a lot of tension between them before they even had a chance to talk. "We had a great convo. ... He thought I was dissing him on the song 'The Message,'" he said, while also recalling how he heard rumors Pac had dissed him during his live shows.

When Snoop spoke to Vlad TV about the situation in 2018, he said that while the situation was tense, they both walked out of it happy they cleared it up. Shortly before Pac's death in '96, the two were able to settle their differences and put the tension to the side. "We had a plan to squash it in Vegas," he said, which is where Pac was fatally shot on Sept. 7, 1996.

Watch the full interview with Nas above.