December 1, 2009
Posted by nation
I Got A Story To Tell
Editor’s note: This is the first of two parts. Read part two here.
People always wonder how I ended up working at Nah Right, which loosely translates into how did eskay end up hiring a fucking kid, from the great north at that, to do work for the site… when there’s probably 8 million people living in NY that may be more qualified. The answer is very simple: I have no idea. This is the best way I can explain it:
I stumbled upon Nah Right in early 2006. Cam’ron had just dissed Jay, Busta had just gotten in a heap load of shit, and Papoose was still the hottest thing coming out of NY. I spent the first night I found it trolling the archives. The more I looked, the more I found the sickest pictures of rappers, MP3s that I needed in my life or simply explanations I had never gotten before. It was apparent that it was much more than just a website. I almost never found it again (what’s a Nah Right?,) thank god for Ctrl+H.
After reading every single post, I started running through the Blog Roll. I realized NR was really the only one I needed, since the rest weren’t focused on news or shit that was happening. The earliest sites I can remember visiting via the blog roll were Crunk & Disorderly, ConcreteLoop, Dallas Penn, Oh Word, Byron Crawford, Unkut, Cocaine Blunts and Nastack.
It was truly refreshing to see people that cared about rap music. Not being from NY, I never knew this many people took things to heart. To me, it was like an underworld I could escape to where people talked rap like it was supposed to be discussed. But I just stuck to reading Nah Right because it had all I needed and, all things considered, eskay’s writing > ____.
Pretty soon it went from a discovery to a distraction hobbie. I would check the site very frequently and I had don’d the name “nation of thugacation” on the comments, because at the time I thought Pap was that dude. I started e-mailing eskay whenever I saw something wrong on the site, and after a while he started joking that he should just make me his copy-editor… lol. We’d e-mail back and forth all the time, because I was just so impressed with how he ran the site, what he brought to the game and who he represented.
After a while, eskay had taken a job at XXL (”Editor in Chief – Online,” if I’m not mistaken) and the work was taking up most of his time, making it impossible to update Nah Right. He offered me a job for the first time in the Spring of 2007, but I was about to start University and he needed me to be in New York, so it never happened.
That summer, though, I built up this little blog called “Weapons of Mass Distraction” where I was just practicing fucking around on posts and blogging at the same pace as Nah Right and ‘em. I wasn’t too serious about it, but I put in major work at times and traffic was pretty decent for something of that kind. My brother had taught me a thing or two about Wordpress and traffic optimization and before I knew it, the summer was over and I was on Kanye’s favorite blogs.
I remember that day perfectly. Eric from Recognize Real (at the time) congratulated me via e-mail, but I hadn’t even seen it yet. I told the 2-3 people who knew about wmdeez what had happened, because at the time, I hadn’t told anyone about Nah Right (to keep all the up to date rap news to myself) and I hadn’t told any of my friends I had started a blog. I don’t know, it seemed kinda corny… jumping into blogs so late in the game… lol.
That’s when I dropped the ball though. As gratifying as it was to get some recognition, I had only been making those posts for the kids on the Nah Right comments or people who read Nah Right and that I knew (my man Dallas, for example.) That’s also probably how Ye found the site, I would be putting in overtime in the comments when this whole Kanye vs. 50 Cent battle was going down, and he probably saw my site and appreciated it. But, in turn, when wmdeez died down, I was ready to step up to the plate at Nah Right. I told eskay I was ready to come on board (slowly,) and he obliged.
at the age of 18, the young god was the only governing body with two websites featured on kanYe’s favorites, back when he had 10 sites there
Everyone thought I had already been working at Nah for quite some time, because when the comments started getting moderated, I changed my name to “nation of moderation.” Truth is, a few months later when I got my password, it was to begin moderating comments but I also jumped the gun and made my first post that day. It was a Kanye x Spin Magazine post.
I started posting full time in the summer that followed. Click here for part two.
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57 Comments
December 1, 2009
APPLAUD THIS MAN
December 1, 2009
The immaturation of Nate zeezee. Wow
December 1, 2009
looks like ima have to add this site to my daily sites
December 1, 2009
I needed to read this. Well done nate; you’ve come a long way :)
December 1, 2009
i heard a similar story in a coffee shop once ..
December 1, 2009
*tips hat* good story Nate…desing is dope, K!
December 1, 2009
BAWSE!
December 1, 2009
Nice site. Props.
December 1, 2009
* thumbs up *
December 1, 2009
I actually remember that post because it wasnt posted by eskay and I was completely thrown off. Times flies man, props on everything.
December 1, 2009
Bumba clot.
December 1, 2009
insipred me….
December 1, 2009
**Begins the countdown until this place is plagued with “McDowel’s” Ad’s.
December 1, 2009
great post nation. the site’s lookin extra good.
December 1, 2009
*pours out liquor for Wmdeez*
December 1, 2009
dope new site nation congrats, now if you can just somehow come across a whole gang of new Jay electronica songs and your set
December 1, 2009
that is amazing man. i gotta hustle hard like you did to get my status up. congrats on the success
December 1, 2009
*cues up “last call” instrumental”
December 1, 2009
“fuck what the blogs say but shoutout to natiioooon”
December 1, 2009
Thank You Man, Me and my dudes have been wondering for a minute how a fellow Montreal head had gotten in with Eskay.
December 1, 2009
congrats! i been a fan of nahright also from 2006. I remember seeing your nameand on the comments, and i do remember eskay was updating the site for a while. I feel to that nahright was and still the site to be at. It was a breath of fresh air, and i put all my dudes on it, and get no fucking thank you for it. Its the love, i will be checking out your site homeboy.
December 1, 2009
Good shit Nate, I’ll definitely be back.
December 1, 2009
you’ve blogged a life that most niggas can only dream. can’t wait for pt. 2.
December 1, 2009
Good shit mayne, site is fresh.
*adds to Google reader*
December 1, 2009
My Big Brother was Big’s Brother..etc..
Good Luck son!
December 1, 2009
shit is lookin good nate. props.
December 1, 2009
daps nation. i can’t believe we stumbled onto nahright at about the same time. i remember you being so heavy in the comments that i thought you were eskay’s go to from day one. i remember when i found out you were from the great white; shit blew my mind. i couldn’t believe how involved you were. incredible b. hard work pays off.
*claps for him.*
December 1, 2009
*subscribed via RSS*
lol i went through the same
nah right discovery in the tenth grade (2007).
Big up Canada!
December 1, 2009
Nas > jay z
December 1, 2009
Dope
heres a quote
“We are A Nation under nation”
December 1, 2009
looking forward to part 2.
December 1, 2009
Sounds like an cyber adventurous story. Happy Birthday Homie once again and good shit !
December 1, 2009
good stuff.
December 1, 2009
You’ve come a long way, that’s wassup hun, continue to do your thing, 1 day i’lle writing a piece like this =).
looking fwd to pt. 2
December 1, 2009
this is like a Daily-Math post… can’t wait for the part where Lyor blacks in the Nah Comments..
December 1, 2009
Congrats man! awesome story.
December 1, 2009
LMFAO at ur derelict retarded ass gettin a hard on and staining ur tighty whitees with pre cum cause Kanye’s faggot ass added you on his blog roll and u keep reminding people about it. Now you go from having your blog to working for a blogger. “the young god was the only governing body with two websites featured on kanYe’s favorites” Na Right ain’t yours dick head. Now kick rocks homo.
December 1, 2009
Brooklyn Stand Up!!!
For Nation
December 1, 2009
you gonna go far na worrie son.
December 1, 2009
Well done!
December 1, 2009
Congrats Nate!!! Now that’s a good look!!!
December 1, 2009
KINGRATS Home Slice ! ! ! .. U Know I’m Peepin’ Game From Over Here, From Now On .. BROCKY!
December 1, 2009
Eskay and Nation run this shit. Case closed.
December 1, 2009
Wow @ Canada Sucks. His contribution contained the words ass, hard on, staining, pre cum, faggot ass and dick head, then he has the audacity to call Nation a homo.
Site looks good, will check on the regular.
December 1, 2009
Loving the new site Nation. Very good piece here. History in the making. This definitely brought back memories commenting in Nah back in 06 07. Man. *waits for part 2*
December 1, 2009
good site. Nice layout. You should have got me to design it though. lol
December 1, 2009
*walks around impressed and happy for the canadian kids but doesn’t say shit*
December 2, 2009
“Check back tomorrow for part two.” Stating this wasn’t even necessary.
December 2, 2009
back in the days kids had college radio shows and then somehow blow up. you like the 2009 of that on some intergalactic hip hop internet type shit. RESPECT>
December 2, 2009
Good work Nation….I was on NahRight mad early too. I remember enjoying your comments since then.
@Canada Sucks…..go drown yourself. Mad hate in that comment. U mad?
December 2, 2009
Wow @ Canada Sucks. His contribution contained the words ass, hard on, staining, pre cum, faggot ass and dick head, then he has the audacity to call Nation a homo.
—-
^ wordlife. fuck outta here.
December 2, 2009
I can pinpoint the moment it all changed. That post with all the tracks from Funkmaster Flex’s july 4th mix. There. I said it.
December 2, 2009
http://wmdeez.wordpress.com/2007/07/08/we-are-not-90s-snobs/
this one. fucking quality shit!
December 2, 2009
Congrats on all your success bro. Damn i had no idea Weapons Of Mass Distraction was you’re site. I used to check for that all the time.
Peace bro
December 2, 2009
Congrats. Love the post
December 2, 2009
*Daps the homie Nate* good looks bruh… I’ll be stoppin’ by
December 3, 2009
Congrats…great story mang
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