This Song of the Week is brought to you by me hitting shuffle on my 5 Star iTunes Music app playlist… and also the fact that the site needed content. So yeah.
“Black Republican” marked the first collaboration between Nas and Jay-Z after their legendary beef—arguably one of the biggest in Hip-Hop history. Could we ever see something similar happen between Drake and Kendrick Lamar? Who knows… but maybe.
Back to the track: I remember feeling a little underwhelmed when I first heard “Black Republican.” Maybe I expected more fireworks. But revisiting it years later, it’s actually a fitting moment for two rap icons squashing the drama and getting on the same page. The Wyldfyer & L.E.S. production sounds even more epic now—like it aged into something grand.
For those keeping score at home, Jay-Z had the better verse here and kinda out-charisma’d Nas from the intro (“Just start dancin’ in this muh’fucka…”), but that’s not discounting Nas, who also turned in a strong verse.
Additional thoughts:
This definitely should’ve had a video. It wasn’t a commercial single for Hip Hop Is Dead.
Speaking of Hip Hop Is Dead, we gave the album 4 Stars (What’s up Blood?!), and “Black Republican” is the best song on there.
Since this track, Jay-Z and Nas have linked up a few more times (“Success,” “BBC,” & “Sorry Not Sorry”) but this one still feels like the moment.
Lil Wayne and Juelz Santana once flipped the concept and dropped a freestyle over the “Black Can’t turn my back on the hood,Republican” beat, which kinda felt like a diss. I always refer to it as “Black Democrats.”
Check out the Song of the Week below: