WHAT IF NAS HAD SIGNED TO MURDER INC?

 After the demise of Tupac Shakur and Biggie Smalls, the whole hip-hop artist community started feuding over the spots that were left vacant by the deceased artists, dividing the rappers. By that time, the Brooklyn-born rapper Jay Z, who had previously been aware of the vacancies even before the feuding began, was quick to ascend to fill the spot his long-time friend Biggie had left. 

The rapper's quick ascend to the ranks reignited the conflict, now every rapper who had witnessed the power grab became more willing to fight harder and more viciously for the remaining vacant position. In the midst of the feuding, no one was ready to back down, anything that could be used as a weapon in the fight was used by the rappers to take over Tupac's position.

In those days, the Quins-born rapper Nas was on good terms with his fellow Quins native and then-upcoming rapper 50 cent, to prove this check out one of the singles they had collaborated on when they were at peace with each other, it was called Too Hot. On the other side of things, Irv Gotti, who was then the head of Murder Inc Records, which was under Def Jam, was cool with Jay Z. These relationships were even further complicated by the rifts that were present between Jay Z and Nas on one hand, and the conflict that had begun to brew between Irv Gotti's Murder Inc and 50 cent.

In the midst of all this, Irv Gotti, acting off his character, came up with the strange and uncalled-for idea to try to sign Nas to his record label Murder Inc. This was a mistake from the beginning due to the fact that the Murder Inc CEO was still on good terms with Jay Z, who was by then still at odds with the Quins-born legend.

Adding to that, Murder Inc concentrating on releasing commercial pop-rap records which were not what Nas was specializing in. The Quins rapper was best at releasing street-type records that were more intellectual and thought-provoking. On Murder Inc, their most successful artist Ja Rule was rather commercial and recorded songs for the radio, that resonated more with women.

Years later, we can now look back and see that Irv Gotti, who was then a student of Suge Knight the former Deathrow boss in the early 2000's, was just trying to copy the system Suge Knight had once placed in his organization. In his successful days at Deathrow, when he found success with his then-new talents  Snoop and Dogg Pound, he brought in Tupac, who was already an established artist in order to take the label to new heights of success. In turn, Irv, who had found success with his talents Ja Rule and Ashanti, was trying to bring in Nas in order to lift Murder Inc to new heights of success. 

The plan Irv Gotti probably had was that he thought he could capture the fan base that Tupac had left,  having Nas and Ja rule who were heavily influenced by Tupac, and they both embodied the 2 sides of the deceased rapper. Irv went on to put his artists on a collaborated song with Nas that they named, The Pledge which was done to let the hip hop community including fans know that Nas was now with Murder Inc. Though on paper it seemed like a good idea when the single was released, the ripple effect that came with it, was it ruined Nas and 50 cent's friendship plus destroyed Irv Gotti's relationship with Jay Z. This happened due to the beef 50 cent had with Murder Inc and on the other side, the conflict that was present between Nas and Jay Z.

At the time this happened, Jay Z had a major promotion at Def Jam and after Irv Gotti fell out of favor with him, the Murder Inc boss whose company was under def jam had to leave the label. Jay Z never looked at Irv Gotti in the same light for trying to sign Nas in the middle of the conflict he had with the Quins rapper. The situation even made Jay Z forget for a little while, the problems he had with 50 cent and even toured with 50 for some time. 

However, after some time, Nas backed out of the deal before he signed with Irv, maybe because it was a bad look for them. Ironically, looking in hind site, on the song Nas had collaborated on with Murder Inc(The Pledge), they had used the beat Tupac had previously used to create his popular single, So Many Tears.

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