Nas releases 'Ether' — diss track that resets the Jay-Z beef

Why it matters

"Ether" came out December 4, 2001, on Nas's Stillmatic LP. The song is Nas's direct response to Jay-Z's "Takeover," which had come out two months earlier. The producer was Ron Browz. The beat is built around a hard, simple keyboard loop. Nas raps over it for four and a half minutes with the controlled fury of an MC who has been waiting to do this for years. The verses do not chase Jay's verses argument-for-argument. Nas instead goes after Jay's identity ("R-O-C, get gunned up and clapped quick"), his physical appearance, his business decisions, his relationship to Biggie (Jay had been close to Biggie, and Nas suggested the closeness had been one-way), and his Roc-A-Fella roster. The combination of personal venom and lyrical precision is the part that flipped the public perception of the beef. After "Takeover," most listeners had thought Jay was winning. After "Ether," most listeners thought Nas had taken the round. The word "ether" entered the rap vocabulary as a verb for decisive diss-track demolition. You can hear why the verb stuck. The song is brutal and exact.