It’s interesting to consider that now, fourteen years after the controversial video’s airing, there’s absolutely no sign of it online. Both versions feature the confusing “Nas believes in the Lord Jesus Christ and this video is in no way a depiction or portrayal of his life or death…” disclaimer, both versions have the moment many cite as the peak of video excess where Puffy spits Cristal at the camera, and both versions feature only Nas on the cross. The second, which is the most commonly seen one, is Hype Williams’ “director’s cut” featuring some backwards lettering in the opening titles, and that’s mostly it. The first, which is the one immediately aired in the controversy’s wake, opens with the credits in a Old English font.
![nas hate me now video was made by nas hate me now video was made by](https://atlantablackstar.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/pjimage-9-421x237.jpg)
While the casting choice was met with angry phone calls, some cancellations and one threat the Center itself didn’t take seriously, the production wound up benefitting from the controversy with ticket sales up 25 percent from the year prior.Īdding to the confusion of “Hate Me Now” is that, not including the pulled crucified-Puff edit, there’s two versions currently in circulation. As for the actual play that put the black crucifixion in Nas’ mind, that would most likely be New Jersey’s Park Theater Performance Art Center’s 1997 production of their annual The Passion Play which, for the first time in 82 years, had Jesus played by a black actor. The Giuliani outrage is probably the Mayor’s early-2000s kerfuffle over photographer Renee Cox’s “Yo Mamma’s Last Supper” which featured Jesus depicted by a naked black woman at a dinner party. In the early 90s (around the time of the aforementioned Nas posse cut appearances) Underwood starred in the self-produced short The Second Coming as a Jesus returning to a world “24 hours from today” where he’s committed to an asylum and accused of a violent crime.
![nas hate me now video was made by nas hate me now video was made by](https://images.genius.com/961279e15384e278198c5c3aef914f08.1000x1000x1.jpg)
These are actually three separate events. Nas was no stranger to controversially invoking religious references before, having done so on early posse cut appearances such as “Live at the BBQ” and “Back to the Grill Again.” But, in that same interview, Nas misremembers the precise reasoning for it finally being enacted in the “Hate Me Now” video, naming a play in New York, possibly starring Blair Underwood, with a black Jesus that was inspiring protests and caught the ire of then-Mayor Giuliani. Nas told VH1’s “Behind the Music” last year that he’d wanted to re-appropriate the Jesus iconography for sometime, originally envisioning it as the cover of his acclaimed debut Illmatic. By the time that episode of “Total Request Live” re-aired five hours later, that cut of “Hate Me Now” had already been swapped-out with a version having all the offensive scenes edited out, presumably never aired anywhere again. Unfortunately, an error in communication resulted in the original edit with a crucified Puffy hitting the airwaves, resulting in Combs allegedly showing up at Stoute’s office within minutes and assaulting him. The clip’s world premiere was to be one of the first momentous video debuts on MTV’s fledgling “Total Request Live,” but a few days before the clip’s Appremiere, Combs contacted Nas’ manager Steve Stoute requesting all footage of him interacting with the cross be removed. That moment is the crucifixion of Sean “Diddy” Combs.Ĭombs was at the center of one of 1999’s biggest music controversies stemming from his appearance in the second single from Nas’ i am… album, “Hate Me Now.” The Hype Williams directed video initially featured Nas and Combs carrying crosses until they are crucified at the video’s climax. With Ja Rule’s infamous 9/11 discussion with “TRL” resurfacing in 2010, it would seem only one tumultuous music moment has yet to find a new life online.
![nas hate me now video was made by nas hate me now video was made by](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/RvVfgvHucRY/maxresdefault.jpg)
![nas hate me now video was made by nas hate me now video was made by](https://i1.wp.com/thumbs.gfycat.com/IcyDelightfulIslandcanary-size_restricted.gif)
#Nas hate me now video was made by tv
At this point, every banned music video, live TV blooper or controversial performance once relegated to word-of-mouth memories is now a mere double-click away. As online music lovers, we’ve had widespread file-sharing for 14 years, Youtube for eight years and full-fledged communities dedicated to pop-culture preservation and video obscurities for at least five.