Ether (4:36)

Nas’ response track to Jay-Z’s The Takeover. The song appeared on 2001’s Stillmatic. The song includes many insults to Jay-Z including: his (verbal) treatment of women, his sexuality, his song Renegade which features Detroit rapper Eminem (it is the general opinion that Eminem greatly outshined Jay-Z on Renegade), and makes claims about Jay-Z biting (stealing) lyrics from the Notorious B.I.G. Because of the ferocity of the song and the general opinion of the song (see next paragraph), the word “ether” is commonly used within the hip-hop community as a term for a devastating diss. “Ethered” is also used as a verb to describe a rap artist that took a significant loss (e.g. He got ethered).

After this track was released, many rap artists agreed that Nas won the feud. This, however, is a matter of opinion and debatable.