"As far as Bleek, it made sense to sign Bleek. This was a nig*a that they could get most of his publishing, They could get most of his sh*t. Knowwhatimsaying?Once he get wise, They could start paying him some money. Get him a publishing deal, take half of that. And I knew that was how it was going to work. The same way with me. They offered me 150,000. I'm like first of all, how can you sit there and offer me a deal. Secondly, you're offering 150,000, you ain't giving me control of the budget. That means we can go in the studio and spend about 45,000 or 50,000, and then you gonna try and have me recoup on 150,000. Do I look crazy?" Jaz-O said.
At one time, Jaz-O, Jay-Z, and Sauce Money were actually a group,with aspirations to record an album together.
"We were a group when we first met Damon Dash, and we demoed like five songs. Damon wanted to manage all of us. Sauce had his doubts and I had my doubts, and I don't know what happened. I guess dog was very easily influenced. Or, he was promised something that other nig*as wasn't promised. All I know is I don't regret that move. I still wouldn't have that nig*a manage me, and I ain't got nothing against him personally. Besides that, we had problems with Bleek. Me and Bee-High, we had a deal lined up for Bleek with DreamWorks. It was for a significant amount of money, significantly more than Roc-A-Fella was offering. When Damon found that out, he changed his mind. Cuz at first he was trying to not sign Bleek. But when he found out that DreamWorks and another major label wanted to sign him, then he changed his whole tune. Then he tried to dispute with me and Bee-High, changing his words and wording and saying something different. I was like, this is just an insult to my intelligence. I ain't even fuc*ing with this sh*t anymore. That's when I stopped being around. That's when I stopped coming to the studio. I stopped doing a whole lot of sh*t. Cause I'm like, this is sh*t is bullsh*t. These nig*as is really playing games, and this nig*a who is supposed to be my man is just sitting here allowing this sh*t to happen. He is not my friend. KnowwhatImean? To me, friendship pervades and goes beyond all of this money sh*t. When none of these nig*as had a dime, they were in my house. I had equipment. Cuz I had money. I bought my own studio. I had a studio in my house. KnowwhatI'msaying? So these niggas was in my crib, and I was making beats back then. You know, me Sauce, and Jay. We just rhyming in a cipher off a beat I'd make for like 2 1/2 hours on some bullsh*t. That's how I was. I'm like yo I got money, and I'm like whatever I got, if I can spare, yaw'll got it too. But when it changed around, dog was like he ain't have no obligations and he just wanted to like turn his back on me. And I made it convenient for him, I just stopped being around, I made life easy for him. I explained it to him like last year, I was like yo dog, you might look at me strange, like why wasn't I around, but you got mad vultures around you. You got mad crab ass nig*as around you, and I said if you walk these nig*as in a room right now I'll tell them to their face. But now I realize why they were around. They were around because birds of a feather stick together. This nig*a's a crab a*s nig*a too." Jaz-O stated,before elaborating more.
"Jay-Z is just stingy. He's that way with his family, he's just stingy. He's had things poppin' for years, and he just really started helping out his family. And the only reason he started helping out his family, is to protect his name, as far as like the public is concerned. So nobody would start digging deep and finding out that this nig*a is a piece of sh*t. You know, his moms is still here and she ain't got this, and she ain't got that. Me, I'm not his family, and look what he did. And he knows that me, I'm not the type of person that under normal circumstances would even say anything. Cause I don't really care. Cause I been knew how to fish. I was getting my dough when he wasn't getting nothing. When I met his man Chase, and Chase runs with me to this day. He ran out on everyone. He ran out on Chase. He would of probably ran out on his cousin High, but High probably thugged him. KnowwhatI'msaying? And he ran out on me cause he know I ain't the thug type. I don't need it. I'd rather you just go away. But, if you gonna talk about your holding a 100 million, and I'm trying to do it again, and then you still saying my name, you're trying to live off of my name. Did this and did that ran straight to Jaz house...I came in the game on Jaz back. I don't need that. The only reason he was doing that was to make it seem like Jaz is still around, yeah Jaz is my dog. Yaw'll don't know what he's doing, but he's doing something, he got something to do with me. And I'm not doing nothing up there. I ain't got no office up at Roc-A-Fella. I ain't got no office up at Roc-A-Wear. But, if I had never said nothing, and somebody would have asked about Jaz-O, they would say...Yeah, Jaz-O, that's Jay-Z's man, that nig*as doing something up there. That nig*a's doing some quiet behind the scenes type shit. I heard it a million times. But, I ain't doing sh*t up there. I can't even get no work up there. Yo, I bring heat rocks up there. Nig*as used to purposely not take my shit. But, when he needed my sh*t, and nobody else was throwing him beats, and he was too cheap to pay for other sh*t, and he was even trying to short my dough, I gave him Ain't No Nig*a for a good price. I gave him In My Lifetime the remix for a good price. I gave him Rap Game/Crack Game, for a good price. I appeared on Nig*a What, Nig*a Who for nothing. I just asked for my percentage of the song, which I had to fight for just now because he filled out a title registration and tried to take my 10% of the song. He tried to take my 10% of the song. That's how fuc*ed up this nig*a is, and the world don't realize it. And like, anybody who takes his side. O.k, take his side because you like his music, don't try to judge this nig*a personally and say he got good character. Because if you do, you're telling me yourself that you're a piece of sh*t." Jaz-O stated.
The whole Nas beef couldn't have helped Jay-Z and Jaz-O's relationship. Nas made various references to Jaz in the diss record, even saying at one point, "Shawn Carter to Jay-Z damn you're on Jaz's di*k." Jaz also did an interview with the Source during the peak of the whole conflict, and didn't say much to back his former protégée. Jaz-O expressed his feelings on the whole battle.
"Remember in the original Wizard of Oz, when the wicked witch was exposed? She started screaming AHHHHHHHH!!! Well that's Jay. He started screaming and whining and everything cause he was exposed. And he didn't want to fu*k with me anymore cause he was exposed. He was made to look less than what he built himself up to be. Some of the sh*t was true, some of it wasn't. But, the main thing was,deep down in his mind he always feels like damn this nig*a Jaz, he got that thing with him. That intangible thing that makes his flow incredible. Something that he could never attained. And he'll never attain it, because that's me, it came from me. The world will maybe one day accept that that's the problem between me and him. He is just jealous. He's jealous of that thing that I have, and no matter how much money he makes and how much business savvy he may have, he still don't have that thing I have. The bottom line is that Jaz is god to him, and that's why his name is Jay-Z." Jaz-O explained, pausing before elaborating more on the Nas-Jay-Z battle.
"I just feel that Jay had a long term plan. He had a plan that he wanted to be on top, but his way to get there was unscrupulous. He was trying to take over sh*t the wrong way. That was why he was doing records with Biggie. He was doing records with Big, because he wanted to show the world that he could out rhyme Big. But, he couldn't out rhyme Big, because Big was naturally a people's favorite. Because Big just talked real sh*t, and if people really listen to Jay's songs and listen to Big's songs and listen to Nas songs, there's something missing in it, and that thing is love. If you listen to Jay, Jay never talks about love, unless he's talking about money. Ain't no love in his music. That's why his music is dead. All it makes you do is dance. All it makes you do is get drunk. All it makes you do is wanna floss and be a fake as* pimp, or a fake as* gangster. There's a lot of real nigga music out here, but that ain't it."
I was always curious to know what Jay-Z's original emcee name was. Was it always Jay-Z, or was it something else. I remember thinking years back, how similar their names were when I first saw the Hawaiian Sophie video. What was Shaun Carter's emcee name when he met Jaz-O?
"I don't even know. He was something. He had like two names. He wasn't just no Jay-Z. It was changed to Jay-Z. He didn't know what he wanted his name to be, he kept picking and choosing. And then he tries to say that his name was named after a kid living in the projects named Jazzy. But, the dude in the projects named Jazzy, he used to try and rhyme, and he named is name that because he named himself after the best rapper he ever heard, and that was me. The best emcee these dudes ever heard was me, and they wanted to be like me. Ask anyone who in the projects around that area during that time, they will tell you. Jaz was god. I am tooting my own horn, but I'm not tooting it of ego, I'm tooting it because I have to set the record straight. I could show people better than I could tell em, but dogs don't want the world to hear me. Just on the Nig*a What, Nig*a Who. He didn't even give me a whole verse, what type of sh*t was that? And the subtitle of the song was The Originators, that was the title of the song that I put him on and I gave him a whole verse. What part of the game is that? If I'm here, and I am history, then I have to set the record straight. Because I will not be erased from history. I got kids, and my kids look up to me. I'm not gonna sit here and let this punk a*s nig*a be something, be in the imaging after the likeness of me in falsehood. I could be in the imaging after the likeness of my own self and be that in truth."Explained Jaz-O.
There's obviously a lot of animosity built up between Jaz-O andJay-Z. Once again, I ponder the question, does the student ever surpass the teacher? That's an answer that only time will provide, but Jaz doesn't just want to set the record straight and let the world know the truth, but he also wants to put emphasis on the fact that he's not just spreading hatred.
"I grew up to have good character, to be courteous to people. When somebody came in your house...If you trusted them enough to be in your house, they were welcome to anything you had. That's how I grew up. I didn't grow up being gullible, it was just a thing, I'm a kind hearted dude. And for my kindheartedness, I got repaid with the bullsh*t. But, my retribution is something that I have to incorporate into what's going down now, because nobody's gonna do it for me. KnowwhatI'msayin? I gotta bring this on. I gotta be theheavy, and I gotta take the risk of looking like a hater. I gotta take the risk of looking like the aggressor, so I gotta make my moves carefully. Cause it's easy for cats when they hear certain interviews to say, Ah that nig*a's just hating cause them nig*as did it and he didn't. KnowwhatI'msayin?" Jaz-O stated.
"Immobilarie translated from Latin means immovable and unshakable. To us, we apply the same definition to the click. And that's what Immobilarie is, it's a click. Immobolarie is from all parts of Brooklyn. It's a million of us."