N.O.R.E. claims that he was the hottest rapper in the world in 1998.
“I was the hottest rapper out but I held out. I wanted a million dollars,” he said on I Am Athlete.
“I was… In 1998? Who was it? Me, D.M.X., Big Pun, Cam’ron. I was the hottest at the time I signed. And, other than D.M.X., I sold the most in my first week. DMX did 220 [thousand], I did 163 [thousand]. Plus, the other 18,000 that they pre-sold from me! Because they bootlegged it and they still counted it!”
Earlier the month, the rapper says the death of D.M.X. made him sign up for Marriage Boot Camp.
“That’s how I deal with death, man,” he told H.H.D.X. “When something happens in my life and someone passes away, I become overproductive. I become overworked. I did that with my father’s death, and it was pretty much doing the same thing with D.M.X.’s death. I was with him for the past six weeks of his life. We spoke to him there every day, and then out the blue … that hit me pretty hard.”