In a raw and reflective interview with Gully TV, Virginia rapper Quan retraced the unlikely rise of “Just a Moment,” the Street’s Disciple standout that introduced him to the world—and the quiet fallout that came after.
The record started in solitary confinement. Quan was doing time in Virginia when he wrote the song that would change his life. “I wrote it in the hole,” he said. “I had it in my book.” After his release, he hit New York and started recording with LES and Red Spyda, courtesy of his manager, who had access to Chung King Studios. It was a legendary space filled with heavy hitters—and it’s where Quan crossed paths with Mobb Deep. “That’s how I met Havoc, P, and them,” he said. “I’d be walking past them every day.”
LES heard Quan’s early version of the song and brought it to Nas. “Next thing I know, I’m on the phone with Esco,” Quan said. “He told me, ‘I’m f—in’ with you. Let’s see what’s what.’” Nas flew him to Miami. By the time Quan got there, Nas had already laid his verse. “It was a beautiful experience,” Quan said. “I would’ve done some things different—but so would he.”
At the time, Quan wasn’t just a new name with a hot record—he was also carrying history. Back in the early ’90s, before the industry knew him, he was running around Virginia Beach with Tone Capone and a then-unknown Jay-Z. “Jay was a hustler with a Lexus,” Quan said. “He wasn’t famous yet—just a dude from up top getting money and messing with my people.” He remembers calling record stores by hand, asking for Jay-Z records, trying to help build buzz before Jay had distribution. “We was doing the internet grind by foot,” he said. “Everything was word of mouth.”
So when “Just a Moment” dropped in 2004—right after Ether and while Jay and Nas were still on shaky terms—Quan found himself caught between two legends. “They were beefing, and I was tied to both,” he said. “In my prison mind I’m thinking, ‘I rap, I sing, I play instruments—just let me get to Jay and Tone.’ But by the time I saw Jay again, he was a hundred-million-dollar man. And I’m just fresh out, trying to eat.”
Quan says he hasn’t spoken to Jay since. And while the Nas collab launched him, the relationship didn’t last. “I felt a sense of loyalty to both,” he said. “But I also needed to move. I was trying to make something happen.”
Despite being the third single off a double album, “Just a Moment” became the clear standout. “That record beat everything on the chart by a landslide,” Quan said. He even contributed to other cuts on Street’s Disciple, including “Message to the Feds.” “We vibed in the studio. He respected my pen.”
Two decades later, Quan still writes from a place of pain—but with more distance. He talks openly about trauma, grief, and what his body goes through when he creates. “Sometimes I won’t sleep. Sometimes I throw up. But I finish the record,” he said. “It’s like I absorb the pain—mine, and other people’s—and then I release it.”
Looking back, the music gave him moments. But the industry didn’t always give him room. “That record changed everything,” he said. “I just didn’t know how much it would cost.”
