MC Serch is a veteran in the game, and a few days ago, the legendary Illmatic executive producer took a moment to drop gem after gem on a recent Drink Champs episode. And while much interesting ground is covered, one of the standout stories arrises around the forty-six minute mark, when NORE brings up Serch being used as a punchline on JAY’s anti-Nas anthem “Takeover” at the onset of the legendary feud.
In fact, NORE seems devilishly amused by JAY-Z having name-dropped Serch on “Takeover,” reciting the lines for additional context. “You made it a hot line, I made it a hot song,” rapped Hov, alluding to the Nas sample on “Dead Presidents.” “And you ain’t get a coin, ni**a, you were getting fucked then, I know who I paid, God: Serchlite Publishing.”
It’s clearly not the first time Serch has reflected on the anecdote, singling out the negative implication that Nas was “getting fucked.” “The true is, and it’s a great story,” begins Serch. “So I was the head of CHR at Def Jam. And their about to put out Reasonable Doubt. And [Kareem Biggs], Dame, and JAY come to my office and say ‘hey, we have to clear this ‘Dead Presidents’ sample. Take care of us.’ I said okay, no problem, give me twenty-five hundred — but know that we’ll have twenty-five percent of your record, on the publishing. He was like ‘alright, cool.'”
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“He gave me a check for twenty-five hundred, I delivered it to [Zomba Music Group,]” continues Serch. “But if you look at the liner notes of “Dead Presidents,” Nas is one of the publishers. So that line can live as long as it lives, but JAY don’t own a piece of Nas’ catalog, but Nas owns a piece of JAY’s catalog. And that’s a fact though.” He takes a puff of his cigar for emphasis.
NORE notes that JAY’s line made it seem as if Nas didn’t own any of his publishing, a misunderstanding that Serch adamantly discredits. “I have a five percent admin fee on those two albums,” he explains. “If Nas wants to do it, I sign off. For me, when I think about being a production company, there are two trains of thought. Train one is the artist ain’t shit, and the production company makes all the money. The second train is, the artist ain’t shit and I’m going to figure out how to jerk the artists. That’s mostly how hip-hop is run, the production companies.”
“I had a third train of thought,” he continues. “I wasn’t going to be the Jew to take advantage off the Black man. I don’t need to get wealthy off Nas, and I don’t. My checks are very humble and I’m okay with that. Cause they’ll go for the rest of my life. When you look at streaming, Illmatic streams four-hundred million a year to this day. I get my fair share.”
For more — and there is much more where that came from — game from Serch, be sure tp check out his two-and-a-half hour episode of Drink Champs below.