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Lest We Forget: Why Jay Z on Fat Joe's 'All the Way Up' Is Monumental

Remembering the Roc-A-Fella/Terror Squad beef.

Two decades ago, both Jay Z’s Roc-A-Fella Records and Fat Joe’s Terror Squad were gaining steam as each was soon to release some of their camp’s most successful albums.

Both heavyweights thought they had the toughest crews and when they went on tour together, understandably, things got testy. To what extent remains in the memories of those who were there and their closest associates.

N.O.R.E., who toured with the two mega cliques back in the day, was a guest on Tax Stone’s Tax Season podcast late last year and was asked if was true that Big Pun really hit Jay over the head with a bottle.

“Yeah, absolutely,” he replied while laughing. “Don’t get it twisted,” he continued, “Roc-A-Fella was hitting n****s in the head with bottles too. Them n****s was wilding!” As definite as that sounds, Noreaga – whose credibility varies when telling old stories – didn’t implicitly say that it happened. He also admits that he only heard the account from those who were there as he wasn’t in the room at the time.

Cuban Link, who was interviewed by Forbez DVD in 2013, was asked a similar question about the rumored incident. He tells a different story of how Pun and Joe once chased Jay Z around a couch. If you remember the duo’s size at the time, that must have been frightening if true. Big Pun’s widow also disputed claims that her deceased husband assaulted Jay with a bottle in an interview late last year.

The alleged bottle incident, among other boiling tensions between Roc-A-Fella and Terror Squad, led to a long-stayed beef between Jay Z, his artists and Big Pun/Fat Joe. Joe and Jay would also butt heads years later during the famed Rucker Park basketball tournament. While each’s team would ultimately never play one another, Joey Crack believed his team won and announced victory at the 2003 Source Awards in Miami.

What’s interesting about the long-standing beef and N.O.R.E.’s part in it is that he, along with Memphis Bleek, would be the ones to officially help end it. “We did something great for the city,” Noreaga told Vibe a month ago, hinting at what was to come. “We can’t announce it now. But we connected two dots… and without me and Bleek, them dots wouldn’t be connected and it looks like it’s going to happen.”

What came from their collaboration was Jay Z’s verse referencing Beyonce’s Lemonade on Fat Joe and Remy Ma’s remix of “All The Way Up.” During his verse, Jay gives a brief rebuttal to Bey’s claims of infidelity rapping, "You know you made it when the fact your marriage made it is worth millions / Lemonade is a popular drink, and it still is / Survival of the littest."

The remix made its debut at Yankee Stadium yesterday (May 24) prior to its official release shortly after. You can hear it, along with watching and listening to interviews that describe the lead up-to this historic collaboration, below.

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