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Nas is commemorating the success of Legend Has It by providing an in-depth look at his contributions to the album series.
On Thursday night, March 12, the Mass Appeal founder delivered his latest project, Feature Presentation 2025. The 15-track album includes his seven collaborations with De La Soul, Big L, Mobb Deep, Ghostface Killah, DJ PREMIER, AZ, Slick Rick and Raekwon. Before each track, Nas features a brief reflection on his work with every respective artist. While speaking on his collaboration with The Chef, "The Omerta," Nas explained why he decided to switch out his original verse for the one that was released on The Emperor's New Clothes.
"That verse came out like ahead of its time," Nas says. "It kind of changed the course of certain people's movement just because of what I said months before my name was brought up, which is how things work. That's how things work. At the end of the day. I had so many verses for the beat that represented where I am really that I wanted to switch that out. Because some people didn't even deserve for them to think that I'm goin' at them when I was just verbally killin' everything. That's just what the beat called for, that's what Rae's energy called for."
Before Raekwon's album dropped in July, a leaked version of "The Omerta" spread online. On Nas' verse, he raps, "Got smoke for me? Beef with yourself/I be chiefing, too hard to notice/Every week it be somebody else/Soon as my name's mentioned, lames are offended/If words hurt you, it wasn't intended/But when it comes to my words, if I said it I meant it/If the shoe fits, this one is for you b***h." The verse dropped amid growing tension between Jim Jones and Nas, which started after Jones claimed the new generation is more inspired by him than the Queensbridge MC. At the time, Raekwon said the verse was made before Jones revealed his issues with Nas.
"I had so many other verses, the one that I actually put out, that Rae put out was not the one that leaked," he continues. "The one he put out, I was paintin' pictures on that. I was paintin' pictures that was probably like a verse of the year candidate, you know? Definitely, but then the one that leaked was an instant verse of the year. So you can't lose. We had to put this one out, official. The one that leaked is now no longer a leak."
Listen to the original version of "The Omerta" below and stream Feature Presentation 2025 on iHeartRadio now.