Jim Jones believes that being compared to Nas made the Grammy winner “viral.”
Last week, Capo was a guest on the Joe and Jada podcast and was offended when a young influencer likened him to the veteran Queensbridge rapper. Although Jim called himself a “superior” Nas fan when he was in grade school, the Dipset member claimed that he reaches a younger audience. Jim also told viewers to “check his track record” on Billboard, although Nas has more stats on the Billboard Hot 100 and Billboard 200.
On the Wednesday (July 25) episode of podcast BagFuel, Jim was again asked about the comparison, and around the 4-minute mark of the video below, he broke down record sales versus relevancy.
“There’s a lot of people that sold more records than me that are also not around anymore,” he said. “Diamond, five-time platinum, four-time platinum, gold artist–I’ve seen it since 1997. Gone. I’m still here.”
Jim added that no matter the “narrative” that people try to paint, he’s still around in 2025 while other rap pioneers aren’t. Despite this, Nas is considerably a rap icon, having released an impressive seventeen solo studio albums. His most recent, Magic 3, dropped in 2023.
Still, Jones thinks that he made Nas a trending topic in 2025. “What I did for Nas probably never been done for him in his life. He’s never been that viral at all. Ever,” Jim said. Ever. He’s never been talked about like this ever in his life.”
Jim also acquainted the comparison to Nas and Jay-Z‘s beef in the 1990s, which ended in a truce during Hov’s 2005 I Declare War concert in New Jersey.
“And I don’t want to talk about other people’s career but let’s just get to the
semantics of it,” Jim continued.
The rapper added that he doesn’t know Nas enough to “have a conversation” and that he doesn’t “really care” to.
Jim also said that he got his start in 2003, over a decade after Nas debuted on Main Source track “Live At the Barbecue.”
“First time I heard Nas, I was in 10th, 11th grade. … Things have changed tremendously since Nas was hot in the ’90s,” Jim said. “He had a smooth wave but it didn’t carry over the way that we seen other artists carry over that was supposed to be in his position.”
Jim claimed that Nas hasn’t fulfilled his “mission” as a rap “leader” unlike himself. “I’ve been getting busy, I’m outside, I’ve been leading example in a great way, you heard?” Jim said.
Nas hasn’t responded to Jim’s widely-debated remarks, but others, like Shannon Sharpe, have spoken up for him.
