Quote Originally Posted by BABABOOEY
First off, which of you said "Jay-Z murdered Nas in their battle" - Whoever said that needs to be shot! Everybody knows "Ether" killed "Takeover" and that weak mixtape joint Jay made about Nas baby mother. Jay's more popular, sells more records, got more money . . . but true rap heads know Nas won that battle.

Ether was aight. It had better production than that Doors hook on Takeover, but that's not Nas on the dials anyway. Lyric for lyric, Takeover was way more cutting, which is what a battle-track is all about. This thing wasn't about (I mean, really it was, but we should pretend it wasn't) making a hit single--it was about calling the other person out as a bitch, and jay did a much better job of that than nas did. People just made a big deal out of ether cuz it was like, whoa, look, nas actually still has some skills--who would have known given that all he's done since Illmatic has been some Nastrodomus-type fake-jiggy bullshit.