Nas has been in Nicki Minaj's shoes in the past.  Back at the 2001 Summer Jam festival, Nas had his own beef going on with Hot 97 because of his then beef with fellow lyricist Jay-Z.  This time around, he was a spectator of a new school beef, and he spoke up about the current situation between Nicki Minaj vs Hot 97 at the 2012 Summer Jam festival.  Nas spoke to Rap-Up.com about the entire issue but remained respectful and neutral to both parties.  Nas knows very well how it feels to be a part of beef in the hip-hop realm, and now that he has matured over the years, he honestly feels as though everyone should just put their differences behind them and unify, despite what camp they might represent.

Here's what Nas had to say:

"I've been there before and things like that happen every couple of years. I guess this is the second time something has happened like that between the artist and the radio station. We don't always agree and the nature of hip-hop can be aggressive and get real gangsta on you now and then. That's just what it is. These things happen.

"YMCMB's situation was different than mine and I'm not clear on all of it, but of course when it happened with me years ago, it was based on the Jay-Z drama and a whole bunch of other stuff. Her situation is based on something different between her and her camp. Eventually I got cool with Hot 97 and they got cool with me. It's one hip-hop family, and that's how it should be at the end of the day.

"I think it was just really messy. When you're in the heat of that moment, no one has time to inform anybody, but we (Nicki and I) spoke after briefly and it seemed like it was a crazy situation for her to handle. When put in that position, it's no easy thing and I guess I was in support of her, in support of Hot 97. I've been there before, so at the end of the day, it could be fixed. It's one hip-hop family, let's unify it."

Source: rap-up.com