Jim Jones and Juelz Santana have come to 21 Savage’s defense.
During a recent interview on the No Jumper podcast, the Dipset members addressed 21’s controversial comments about Nas.
The ATL-based, London-born rapper caused quite the stir this month when he chimed in on a Clubhouse discussion titled “Is Nas the Greatest Rapper or What?”
“I don’t feel like he’s relevant,” 21 said in the chat. “I just feel like he got fans. … He’s not relevant. He just has a loyal ass fan base and he still make good-ass music.”
The comment immediately drew criticism from a number of hip-hop figures, including Kodak Black and Nas’ brother Jungle. 21 addressed the backlash via Twitter last week, insisting he never intended to insult the East Coast icon.
“I would never disrespect Nas or any legend who paved the way for me,” he wrote. “Y’all be tryna take stuff and run with it.”
Well, it seems Jones and Santana agree that the controversy was unwarranted, as they believe 21’s comments were simply misconstrued.
“It’s like you can’t even have no opinions out here nowadays,” Jones said. “And they’re so quick to misconstrue everything you say. ’Cause I don’t believe that he was trying to say it in a—”
“In a malicious way,” Santana interjected. “He wasn’t saying it in a malicious way at all.”
Jones went on to say that some people wrongly conflate “relevant” with “lit,” which explains why so many fans misunderstood where 21 was coming from.
“I’m just looking at what 21 Savage was saying. I don’t think that he meant it as what people were taking it as, or shit like that,” Jones explained. “Because in today’s society, with the younger generation, these kids are very lit out here, and they put ‘lit’ and ‘relevant’ in the same thing, when it’s two different things.”
Santana expanded on that point: “I think they should have found out what 21’s definition of relevant is, too. When you ask questions, you got to be real particular ’cause he’s just talking ...”
Santana went on to say that Nas has also expressed criticism toward other rappers, specifically Dipset’s Cam’ron; but he pointed out that Nas never received backlash over the remarks because of his perceived status in the game.
“If Nas would have said something about 21 nobody [would’ve said anything] ’cause they feel like Nas got a right, because of who he is … They feel like because 21 ain’t Nas, he don’t got a right to talk about Nas. And that’s the fucked up thing in the world we live in, ’cause we all have a right to our opinion.”
You can check out Jones and Santana’s comments in the video below.