Nas shot down allegations that he dissed Doja Cat in the lyrics of his new single “Ultra Black” in a new interview with radio station Power 106 on Friday (Aug. 21).
“I just was really saying a rhyme that rhymed with ‘Ultra Black’,” the rapper insisted in the joint interview with collaborator Hit-Boy. “I rhymed that word with ‘ultra black,’ I didn’t even think of it. It’s all love, it’s all love, you know what I’m sayin’? It was like ‘Michael Blackson black.'”
(On the track, featured on his new LP King’s Disease, Nas appears to take aim at the rising female MC at the end of the first verse, rapping, “Sometimes I’m over-black, even my clothes are black/ Cash Money with the white tee and the soldier rag/ We goin’ ultra black, unapologetically black/ The opposite of Doja Cat, Michael Blackson black.”)
Hit-Boy also offered his take on the lyrics, saying, “It literally is, Doja Cat’s the opposite of Michael Blackson. That’s how I looked at it,” before Nas jumped in to add, “It’s bars. It’s lines. We play with words, man.”
For her part, Doja Cat clapped back at her name being dropped in the song by taking to her Instagram Stories earlier this week. “I’m so offended and upset by this song,” she said in the livestream as “Ultra Black” played in the background before cheekily asking her followers, “Have you guys heard ‘Fruit Salad’ by The Wiggles?”
Doja also announced the day of Nas’ interview that she plans to release her own track, titled “NAS” sometime this week in response to the rapper’s single.
Watch Nas and Hit-Boy’s full interview with Power 106 below.
