“I showed you your first TEC on tour with Large Professor // Then I heard your album about your TEC on the dresser” raps Jay Z on the scathing “Takeover” where he fired shots at all his foes at the time, namely Nas and Mobb Deep’s Prodigy.

During the Jay Z and Nas beef, which stretched over almost a decade with beginnings on Reasonable Doubt until the pair squashed all drama in 2005, one of the main criticisms Hov had against Nas was his street credibility.

According to Hov (at the time), Nas never lived the life that he portrayed in his songs, he simply “witnessed it from your folks’ pad” and then “scribbled it in your notepad and created your life.” Which brings us to the infamous TEC line, which according to many sources, including Extra P himself, is based on a true story.

According to a 2002 interview with Noah Callahan-Bever for XXL, Large Professor’s group, Main Source, were on tour with The U.M.C.’s and Jaz-O at the time. Nas was touring with Main Source off the strength of his classic “Live at the Barbeque” while Jay was performing as Jaz’s hype man.

During a show in Washington D.C., the sound system cut out and ended the show early. This angered the crowd who stormed the stage and chased the performers back onto their tour bus.

We were figuring we were gonna have to knuckle down. Jay came outta nowhere, reaching in his gym bag like, ‘Don’t even sweat these ni**as. I got that.’ He didn’t show [Nas] the gun like, ‘I’m gonna shoot you,’ but we were all just like, ‘Whew!’

Large Professor Interview [XXL, March 2002]
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