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Takeover (song)

"Takeover"
Song by Jay Z from the album The Blueprint
Released September 11, 2001
Recorded 2001
Genre Hip hop
Length 5:13
Label Roc-A-Fella, Def Jam
Writer(s) Jay Z
Producer(s) Kanye West
The Blueprint track listing
The Ruler's Back
(1)
"Takeover"
(4)
Izzo (H.O.V.A.)
(3)

"Takeover" is a track recorded by Jay Z for his 2001 album The Blueprint. The song is a diss track aimed at rappers Nas and Prodigy of Mobb Deep.

This song was the first official LP diss track to publicize directly the hip hop Jay Z vs. Nas feud (although there exists several other rap records prior to this featuring disses from both Nas and Jay Z toward each other). It samples the song "Five to One" by The Doors and "Sound of da Police" by KRS-One. The first line in this song is taken from Jay Z's verse in "Celebration" off of the Streets Is Watching soundtrack. The song also samples David Bowie's "Fame".

In the second verse, Jay Z alleges that Prodigy (member of Mobb Deep) took ballet classes as a child and mocks Prodigy's small stature. Jay-Z further dismisses Mobb Deep as competition in the hip hop industry by pointing out that his career had more commercial success than they ever would, and dissing Mobb Deep's famous song "Shook Ones Pt. II". Mobb Deep replied to Jay Z in a subsequent LP diss track, but their rivalry has more or less been overshadowed by the rivalry between Nas and Jay Z.

In the third verse (which has 32 bars, while the other verses have 16), Jay Z ridicules Nas's discography (at the time consisting of four albums) and claims Nas has a "one hot album every ten year average." Jay-Z referred to a widespread feeling from many hip hop critics and artists that Nas's subsequent albums after his legendary Illmatic debut were mediocre follow ups, and dissed Nas' famous song from that album "The World Is Yours". Jay Z sampled some of Nas' lines for the chorus of Jay Z's famous song "Dead Presidents II", and claimed in "Takeover" that he sampled it because Nas was using it wrong ("So yeah I sampled your voice, you was usin' it wrong/ You made it a hot line, I made it a hot song"). Jay Z also questions Nas's street credibility and claims Nas has lied or exaggerated about his past in songs, with the lines, "Nigga, you ain't live it you witnessed from your folks' pad/Scribbled in your notepad and created your life/I showed you your first tec, on tour with Large Professor (Me! That's who!)/Then I heard your album 'bout your tec on your dresser."(This is a reference to the Illmatic song "Represent"). Jay Z also ridicules Nas's style, flow, and career decisions, with lyrics like, "Nigga switch up your flow, your shit is garbage/What you trying to kick knowledge? (Get the fuck outta here)" and "Fell from top ten to not mentioned at all/To your bodyguard's Oochie Wally verse better than yours/Matter fact you had the worst flow in the whole fuckin' song..." which "Oochie Wally" is a song by The Bravehearts from the collaborative album QB's Finest, and samples the song in this song when Jay-Z mentions it.


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