Jay-Z and R. Kelly collaborated on two albums, a fact that Nas found suspicious. In the years since working with Jay-Z, Kelly has been sentenced to prison for production of child pornography and sexual abuse. When he toured with Jay-Z in the early 2000s, he was already facing legal problems. Nas doubted that Jay-Z could have worked with Kelly without some awareness of his predatory behavior.

Nas claimed Jay-Z must have known about R.Kelly’s behavior

Jay-Z and R. Kelly worked together on two albums and a short-lived tour. Nas questioned whether or not Jay-Z could have been fully ignorant of Kelly’s predatory behavior.

“That’s not my style,” he told Wendy Williams, per Vibe Magazine. “I could have shown the R. Kelly video that everybody’s talking about and made fun of it and show pictures of Jay hanging out. You can’t tell me Jay didn’t see a 14-year-old girl come into the studio and sit on R. Kelly’s lap. You gonna tell me he didn’t see no 14-year-old girl come into the vicinity?”

He said that spending time with Kelly over the years made him acutely aware of the singer’s behavior.

“You’ve seen it go down,” he said. “I’ve been around R. Kelly … I’ve been on tours with him. I didn’t see no 14-year-old, but I talked to the man and see there’s a little problem there. The brother needs help and I pray for him. I’m here for the people. I’m here to talk [about] the truth.”

Nas and Jay-Z feuded for years

Nas and Jay-Z feuded for years. They traded diss tracks, including the song “Ether,” which explicitly says “f*** Jay-Z.” Jay-Z responded with “Supa Ugly.” In the song, he raps about the women in Nas’ life, including Carmen Bryan, who cheated on Nas with Jay-Z. His mother believed he took things too far with the track.

“Mom put in a call and said, ‘That went too far.’ And she’s never, ever called me about music. So I was like ‘Okay, okay, okay. I’ll go shut it down,’” Jay-Z said, per American Songwriter. “Once again, I apologize. I felt like I didn’t think about women’s feelings or [Nas’ former girlfriend’s] feelings, or even my mom. It was really like, ‘Let me meet your level of disrespect with this level of disrespect.’”

He spoke about his tour with R. Kelly

Jay-Z and Kelly’s 2004 tour ended early. Kelly walked off stage at more than one show, and a friend of Jay-Z’s reportedly pepper-sprayed him at a Madison Square Garden show. Upon reflection, Jay-Z said the tour had been a disaster.

“Didn’t go well?” he told Rolling Stone in 2010. “That’s the understatement of the year.”

He claimed he wanted to help Kelly.

“I wanted to help him, and I’d tell him things that were maybe not my place to say,” he said. “It was sad to see.”

How to get help: In the U.S., call the RAINN National Sexual Assault Telephone Hotline at 1-800-656-4673 to connect with a trained staff member from a sexual assault service provider in your area.