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Nas Kills The Speculation: 'It's Murder!'

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Nas hasn't been granting too many interviews lately to clear up questions about his association with Ja Rule, Irv Gotti and the Murder Inc. family, but the rap slugger has broken his silence through his music. On the remix to the Inc.'s "The Pledge," which has turned up on New York radio, Nas basically kills the speculation about whether he's signing to Murder Inc. and tells the world, "It's Murder!"

"In the beginning, it was me, Nas, I stood alone," his voice echoes at the beginning of the song with Ja Rule yelling, "It's Murder!" in the background. "But now ... Murder Inc. y'all. It's Murder. It's over now, you know that, right?"

Nas' verse then commences, and he raps about the "merger" of Ill Will Records and Murder Inc. over the same beat used in the original "The Pledge". "My cash make sex with your cash," Nas says on the track, "it can't hurt us." He later boasts that he has also realigned himself with his longtime advisor/manager Steve Stoute.

Ashanti sings the same chorus as on the original cut, with Nas ad-libbing, "It's no me y'all ... I.N.C. ... Murder Inc."

Ja Rule then comes in to add his vocals to the song's second verse, but not before he gives a shout-out to Suge Knight. Ja then paints a scenario of riding with Tupac if the late, great veteran were alive. Although he doesn't mention any names, Ja goes on to verbally assail an unnamed victim that some have inferred to be DMX: "Bitch dog/ Get, at me dog / Rule n---a the boss/ You always been a pup/ Now ain't it a pity/ That you running to I.G./ Dying to be me".

A recording of Tupac's voice ends the song, with the hip-hop legend saying, "I shall not fear no man but God/ Though I walk through the valley of death." "The Pledge" uses the same sample Pac used for "So Many Tears."

A spokesperson for the Inc. did not know where the song would wind up. Likewise, a spokesperson for Nas said details concerning the song are not yet available.

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