“To do a biography on somebody is putting their business on wax.”
If everyone will take a moment to lay back on a blast to the past, a trip will be taken back to 2004 when Nas was on his climb back to the top after dropping Stillmatic in 2001 and following it up with God’s Son in 2002. On the same page as Jay with The Blueprint 2: The Gift and The Curse, Mr. Jones decided to drop the double-disc Street’s Disciple.
The curse for Jay was the exact same curse for Nas as fans felt that there was entirely too much material and condensing the two discs into one would have rid the album of unnecessary filler space.
Disc two, however, featured “U.B.R. (Unauthorized Biography of Rakim)” where Nasir decided to pay homage to a Hip-Hop pioneer and show his appreciation towards his fellow New York rapper.
The honor may not have been fully appreciated, however, as William Griffen, a.k.a Rakim, has always harbored mixed feelings towards Nas showing his “respect” to him. Catching up with Urban Daily, Rakim opened up about the homage paid to him.
“I felt a little funny about it at first, and then not hearing anything from Nas kind of confirmed the feeling. You got to holla at me man, otherwise I’m going to feel like you did it for a reason, like you had some kind of angle. I never heard nothing from Nas and although we don’t have each other’s number, we have people that can get at people. I haven’t heard from his to this day and I feel a little funny because that’s my business like my kid’s names and certain things that I didn’t even speak on.”
Although the intentions of Nas may not have been malicious or meant to air out Rakim’s life like that, the point still stands that it would make sense to contact the one the song is about and at least get the okay or get some more input for the track.
Regardless of his feelings towards 2004, it is now 2009 and Rakim is set to make his return with The Seventh Seal, which will end the wait for material since 1999’s The Master. Featuring such acts as Maino, and Busta Rhymes, the return on November 17 could shape up to be very promising.
This time he will deliver his own story through his own mouth.
