I agree with all of this except the Columbia angle. Nas himself has said that difference between his time at Columbia and his time with Def Jam is that Columbia pretty much let him do whatever the fukk he wanted, including set his own release dates, whereas with Def Jam there was more red tape. He wanted to put out Lost Tapes 2 in 2011 before Def Jam put the kabosh on that.
Def Jam v Columbia in terms of the machine. Nas is right and talking about the creative side of things, but I'm talking about the way Def Jam artists had Hot 97 on lock, all the fukkery with paying DJs etc. That's another reason Nas is an anomaly in my eyes: he was out here going against titans who were doing more tilt the board for their guys than Columbia/Sony was at the time.
I just ran across this for instance, hadn't heard it in years
Listen to how jovial Flex and Angie are lmao. Even had the word on when the track was recorded. They're celebrating this shyt, not sounding impartial or fair at all. Which of course made the radio vote reaction even funnier. I'm just saying all that shyt with the DJs and why they rode with Jay (besides him doing more interviews and drops)...that's Def Jam fukkery. Sure there would be some red tape but I can't help but wonder what Nas on a UMG label would have looked like back then.