This absolutely makes no sense whatsoever, unless Nas just doesn’t give a fukk about the timeline.
The emphasis of the song is during the “height of the beef.” He’s painting a picture of how it was in ‘96. Lakey was locked up during this time. He was released in ‘99. Within the context of the song, and the events that took place in real life, it wouldn’t make sense for him to be referring to Lakey.
Suge didn’t try to start Deathrow East with Lakey until 2006, which was 10 years later. Nas & Lakey fell out prior to the creation of Deathrow East, which Lakey explains in the link below.
Lake Me Against The World - XXL
About a year ago, you had a falling out with Nas. How did that happen?
That was behind us establishing [the record label] Ill Will, and then that not happening. People were depending on me, I was waiting on him, and the people that was waiting on me got caught up in the situation. Federal cases got built up and they went to jail, and one of my friends was killed before they came in and locked the other seven of my homeboys up. So, enough was enough. That was something that can’t be repaired. I can’t just get on and blow and change that situation. Nothing was going to change that. I was done with waiting and dealing with that.
If you want to just make an assumption on who you believe he was talking about, it would definitely have to be Eric B and his people.
@seemorecizzy is right
Deathrow was basically dead, and operating as Tha Row Records, under Reggie Wright. However, I understand if you view them as the same.