Carmen Bryan says Jay-Z and Nas Started the Public Diss-Fest

Carmen Bryan says Jay-Z and Nas Started the Public Diss-Fest by Paula Neal Mooney

Carmen Bryan wasn’t looking for a fight. Carmen Bryan didn’t mean to come between Jay-Z and Nas the way that Faith Evans reportedly came between Tupac and Biggie. We all know how that ended. Thank God Jay-Z and Nas have kissed and made up.

A new article in the January 2007 issue of Essence digs into the psyche of Carmen Bryan, the woman behind the hit memoir It’s No Secret.



Carmen Bryan, 35, is taking her power back from ex-fiancé and father of her child Nasir “Nas” Jones and ex-lover Shawn “Jay-Z” Carter, who got into an on-wax battle that began with Jay-Z’s “Is That Your Chick?” and his hateful “Super Ugly” follow-up.

Carmen Bryan claims Jay-Z was just hurt because Carmen had agreed to marry Nas, who came back hard with the face-cracking “Ether,” but never walked down the aisle with Carmen.

I’m not an MC; I can’t go in the studio and respond to individuals,” Carmen Bryan told Essence. “So when Jay-Z and Nas recorded songs about me, they opened this door...I had no forum,” Carmen Bryan, mother to Nas’ 12-year-old Destiny, whom she had to drag Nas into court to collect child support for, continued. “Once I was given the opportunity to tell my story, I jumped at it.”

Of course, tons of “urban blogs” are dissing Carmen Bryan and calling her all out of her name. But you won’t see that here.

I’m kinda glad for women like Carmen Bryan and Karrine Steffans, who seem to be on the cutting edge of a new trend of women used and abused and discarded by a misogynistic rap industry that doesn’t show a ton of respect for women at large, black women specifically. Maybe rappers and other Hollywood insiders that are shocked to find themselves in books like these will think twice about how they treat people in the future.

And I’m glad 50 Cent encouraged the Queens-bred Carmen Bryan to take her voice back and tell her side of the story. The pen is indeed mightier than the mic…

Read an excerpt from Carmen Bryan’s It's No Secret here...