"Hate Me Now" is the second and final single by rapper Nas featuring Sean Combs, from Nas' third studio albumI Am.... The backbeat is inspired by, and contains some samples from, Carl Orff's "Carmina Burana". It was ranked 119 on XXL's best songs of the 1990s.
Production and release
In a 2007 interview with Rolling Stone, Nas recalled the making of the song: "It was a track D-Moet produced for Foxy Brown, and she didn't want the record, she didn't like it. It fit with my album, I Am..., so I did the D-Moet track and it sounded perfect for Puff to be on, so I gave it to him, went to the studio, and he rocked it, knocked it out." "Hate Me Now" was released as a single in the U.S. by Columbia Records on April 6, 1999.
Composition
Biographer Ronin Ro describes Combs's persona in "Hate Me Now" as "the angry young rapper battling jealous critics," a theme that would influence Combs's 1999 albumForever. The beat samples "Carmina Burana" by Carl Orff.
Critical reception
For RapReview.com, Steve Juon said that "Hate Me Now" was the "only truly overpowering song" from I Am...: "It may be yet another mad track about playa hating, but the rebuttal of the hate is crisp and well defined - owing little to cliche." In 2013, Complex ranked the "Hate Me Now" video no. 8 in its "50 Best Rap Videos of the '90s" list.
Music video
The music video for the single, directed by Hype Williams and featuring Nas being crucified, was the subject of extreme controversy, as the original edit also featured Sean Combs, then known as Puff Daddy, on the cross. Puffy, who was a Catholic, had demanded that his crucifixion scene be excised from the broadcast edit of the video. However, the wrong edit was incorrectly sent to MTV, which broadcast that version on the April 15, 1999, edition of TRL. Within minutes of the broadcast, Combs had barged into the offices of Nas' manager Steve Stoute with several bodyguards, and struck Stoute over the head with a champagne bottle. In June 1999, Stoute sued Combs, resulting in a $500,000 out-of-court settlement from Combs.
