Nas has released the original version of Raekwon’s “The Omerta,” with a verse that has long been suspected of featuring bars aimed at Jim Jones.
The project Feature Presentation 2025 includes a track titled “Nas speaks on Raekwon” where the rapper opens up about working with Raekwon, while also revealing he had “so many verses for the beat” that never saw the light of day.
After one of those verses leaked, Raekwon downplayed suspicions that Nas was dissing Jim. “Nas did not write that verse for Jim. That was a stray shot Jim got hit with,” he said at the time. "Y'all made it seem like it was for Jim. Nas wasn't dissing Jim. He wasn't dissing him.”
While reflecting on the verses that did not make the final cut, Nas suggested that the verse from the leaked version was replaced to avoid any misinterpretation, presumably from Jones. “I wanted to switch that out because some people didn’t even deserve for them to think I’m going at them,” he said.
“I was just verbally killing everything,” Nas continued. “That’s what the beat called for. That’s what Rae’s energy called for.”
Prior to the release of “The Omerta,” Jones rejected comparisons to Nas on the Joe and Jada Podcast, claiming he has the better discography.
“My son can't tell me one Nas record,” he said. "There must be some type of misconception when it comes to Jim Jones and what Jim Jones has done in this game. A lot of these rappers have done a tremendous job. And I take nothing away from them. But they forget, I got a hell of a catalog. Gold records, platinum records. ... Check my track record. Then check everybody else track record.”
Looking back, Nas realizes that his verse was “ahead of its time.”
“What I did was I let myself flow, but the verse came out, like, ahead of its time,” he said. “It kinda 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.”