Hot 97 Comments on Nas No-Show

Daily Hip-Hop News: Hot 97 Comments on Nas No-Show written by Q Monday - July 1, 2002

With whirlwinds of speculation on what went down between Nas and Summer Jam 2002, Hot 97 shortly after told their side of the story on their website. Nas claimed that Hot 97 management refused to let him perform certain acts on stage, in turn giving Nas the opportunity to call it quits. Here's the statement from Hot 97's website :

No doubt you've heard lots of stories surrounding Nas no-show at Summer Jam 2002.

Here are the facts - On the day of the show, it was brought to the attention of HOT 97's management that Nas had erected a 12-foot high gallows on-stage and was planning a fake LYNCHING of Jay-Z on stage during his set. As a radio station feel we have a responsibility to our audience and could not condone this type of simulated violence on stage in front of 16,000 people some of which included children.

Management asked Nas to perform without the lynching. Nas refused and chose to not perform at the show.

Here's the misinformation - HOT 97 DID NOT tell Nas that he couldn't talk about Jay-Z nor did management tell him he couldn't perform specific songs. What happens on the mic at Summer Jam is up to the artists. Verbal battles are a part of Hip Hop, but the station's management felt the lynching went too far.

We would love to have seen Nas perform and we share in your disappointment that he did not. We would like to thank all the artists who did such a great job. And we want to thank you, our listeners for supporting HOT 97 and for supporting hip hop.

Thank you,

HOT 97 Management

Word is that Roc-A-Fella CEO Damon Dash was the one who called Hot 97 and told them that Nas had erected the 12-foot gallows. "Who do you think made that phone call? I just wanted to aggravate ," Dash said. "I can't rap, but I can get at him though."