Ether (song)

"Ether"
Song by Nas from the album Stillmatic
Released	December 18, 2001
Genre	Hip hop
Length	4:37
Label	Ill Will, Columbia
Writer	Nasir Jones Rondell Turner
Producer	Ron Browz
Stillmatic track listing
"Stillmatic (The Intro)" (1) "Ether" (2) "Got Ur Self A..." (3)

Ether is the second track on hip hop artist Nas' 2001 album Stillmatic. The song was a response to Jay-Z's "Takeover" - a diss track from that rapper towards Nas which appears on Jay-Z's album The Blueprint, during the Jay-Z vs. Nas feud. Nas named the song Ether because, "I was told a long time ago, ghosts and spirits don't like the fumes from ether, and I just wanted to affect him with my weapon and get to his soul."

Song

Ether is a diss song to fellow New York rapper Jay-Z, who had surpassed Nas in commercial success since 1998 and had dismissed him as a has-been on the diss track "Takeover." Nas responds to Jay's claims by rapping, "I got this, locked since Nine-One (1991), I am the truest/ Name a rapper that I ain't influenced." The song contains numerous gay-based slurs directed at Jay-Z: "When these streets keep calling, heard it when I was sleep/ That this Gay-Z and Cock-A-Fella Records wanted beef", "Then you got the nerve to say that you're better than Big/ Dick-suckin' lips, why don't you let the late great veteran live", "You a dick-ridin' faggot, you love the attention/ Queens niggas run you niggas, ask Russell Simmons" and "Put it together/ I rock hos; y'all rock fellas."

Nas also attacks Jay-Z's street cred, claiming, "In '88, you was gettin' chased to your buildin'/ Callin' my crib, and I ain't even give you my numbers/ All I did was give you a style for you to run with." He also accuses Jay of selling out, "Y'all niggas deal with emotions like bitches/ What's sad is I love you cause you're my brother, you traded your soul for riches." He had lines regarding Jay's unattractive appearance and accuses him of misogyny, rapping, "You seem to be only concerned with dissin' women/ Were you abused as a child, scared to smile, they called you ugly?" and "Foxy kept you hot, kept your face in her puss/ What you think you gettin' girls now because of your looks?", "started cocking up my weapon slowly loading up this ammo to explode it on a Camel and his soldiers". He also accuses Jay of brown-nosing other rappers for fame: "Your ass went from Jaz to hangin' with Kane, to Irv to Big/ And, Eminem murdered you on your own shit." Not only does he criticize the usage of other rappers' influence for increased fame, he mentions that Eminem outshined him on his song, "Renegade". Finally, Nas insults Jay-Z's biting of Big's lyrics claiming that Jay-Z stole his rhyming skills off Biggie, "How much of Biggie's rhymes gonna come out your fat lips?". The intro of Ether starts with gunshots from Notorious B.I.G.'s Who Shot Ya? then there's a Screwed voice of the late 2Pac saying "Fuck Jay-Z" which is taken from the 2pac song "Fuck Friendz". In the outro of Ether, Nas mocks the chorus of Takeover, which Jay-Z raps "R-O-C, we runnin' this rap shit", Nas changes it to "R-O-C, get gunned up and clapped quick" and so on. The melody was taken from the hook of Eminem's song "Who Knew". Later Eminem took the sample of "Ether" and used it in Xzibit's song "My Name" featuring Eminem and Nate Dogg.

Significance

Jay-Z's "Supa Ugly" marked the "official" end of the battle, although references to the beef can be found on Nas' "Last Real Nigga Alive" from God's Son, "U Wanna Be Me" from 8 Mile and "Everybody's Crazy" from The Lost Tapes, and Jay-Z's "Blueprint 2" from The Blueprint 2: The Gift and the Curse album.

The Nas vs. Jay-Z feud was beneficial to both men's careers. Stillmatic and "Ether" had marked the reemergence of Nas to the hip hop scene two years after having released Nastradamus, considered by many fans and critics to have been the weakest album in his discography. Many fans still credit the feud with resurrecting Nas' career; while he has not matched the commercial success of It Was Written or I Am..., his work since Stillmatic has generally been better received critically. The battle also boosted Jay-Z's career, giving him much notoriety for having the bravado to attack Nas, who was looked at as more of a veteran than Jay-Z.

Though both rappers referenced the feud on their follow-up albums, "Takeover" and "Ether" remain two of the most known and best-received disses in hip-hop history. The feud (or "beef") between the two rappers has since been reconciled, and they have gone on to collaborate on the song "Black Republican", from Nas's 2006 album Hip Hop is Dead, "Success", from Jay-Z's 2007 album American Gangster, "I Do It For Hip Hop" from Ludacris' 2008 album Theater of the Mind. There have been reports^{[citation needed]} of plans to collaborate on a remix of "Empire State Of Mind", along with DMX, Fabolous and 50 Cent

Ron Browz, the producer of the song, had nicknamed himself Etherboy, due to producing the hit.

The word "ether" also became a new term in the hip hop community shortly after the song was released, meaning to humiliate or insult someone to a great extent.

While in recent years the said rivalry has long passed and become a matter of musical history, remnants of it remain in rumors that Nas was to appear on what would become Jay-Z's first number one hit single, "Empire State of Mind" featuring Alicia Keys. In September 2009, shortly after Jay-Z's Blueprint 3 was released, Nas stated during an interview^{[citation needed]} that he was not invited to perform on the song at all.

Also see

• Takeover