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Ask any rap aficionado about the greatest rivalries of hip hop, and they’ll wax poetic about Jay-Z and Nas. Like two heavyweight boxers trading haymakers, the two legendary New York icons engaged in a beef filled with brilliantly constructed lines and scathing personal attacks. While I can make strong arguments for either man as the victor of the feud, the legacy of this rivalry lies in the unforgettable verses they crafted.
My Bottom Line Up Front:
While many other rappers have engaged in their own rivalries, no beef has thus far lived up to the notoriety of Jay-Z and Nas’ intense duel. Indeed, as they waged their war of words, these rap kings undoubtedly brought out the best emcee in each other.
On one corner…Nas
Nasir Jones, the poet laureate of Queensbridge, first burst onto the scene in 1991 when he appeared on the first studio album of the group Main Source. In 1994, Nas released his debut project Illmatic, which was widely hailed by critics and fans alike, setting a standard for debut albums in the hip hop industry.
Singles such as “N.Y. State of Mind” and the AZ-assisted “Life’s a Bitch” showcased Nas’ inimitable flow, excellently structured rhymes, and exuberant story-telling. With the success of Illmatic, Nas established himself as a juggernaut of the East Coast hip hop scene during the mid-’90s.
(Of course, the relevance of Illmatic never waned. Case in point: I love to play it in my car on my way to work!)
On the other corner…Jay-Z
While Nas was reveling in the success of Illmatic, a young emcee by the name of Shawn “Jay-Z” Carter was trying to find his footing in the rap game. In 1995, Jay-Z started the independent label Roc-A-Fella Records, which would serve as the platform for the launch of his debut album.
That debut came in 1996 when Jay-Z released Reasonable Doubt. Like Illmatic, Reasonable Doubt made waves in the industry; critics were impressed with Jay-Z’s vivid depiction of life on the streets and his complex flow and rhyme schemes. In short order, Jay-Z put the hip-hop community on notice.
While his collaboration with the iconic Biggie Smalls was entitled “Brooklyn’s Finest,” it certainly seemed as though Jay-Z had his sights set on a much bigger throne. (On a personal note, I miss Jay-Z’s old, rapid flows that were all over this project. Jay-Z can speed rap like nobody’s business.)
The Studio Albums that Planted the Seeds
In addition to The Notorious B.I.G., Reasonable Doubt featured singer Mary J. Blige; and rappers Memphis Bleek and Foxy Brown. It seems, however, that one more big name was slated to appear on Jay-Z’s debut album: none other than Nas himself.
Reportedly, Nas no-showed a recording session for the track “Bring It On.” The song would eventually make the final cut of Reasonable Doubt, but with guest appearances from Big Jaz and Sauce Money instead.
Notwithstanding Nas’ omission of the track (or, perhaps, because of it), Jay-Z sampled a line from Illmatic (“I’m out for presidents to represent me”) on “Dead Presidents II.” As it were, Nas’ presence was felt in the Reasonable Doubt album, whether he liked it or not.
Conspicuously, Nas dropped his second studio album, It Was Written, just one month after Reasonable Doubt. The album’s opening track, “The Message,” appeared to be taking a shot at Jay-Z with the line “Lex with T.V. sets the minimum.”
This line caught hip-hop fans’ attention because of Jay-Z’s multiple references to the luxury car Lexus on Reasonable Doubt. (For his part, Nas claimed in a 2016 Complex interview that the line was merely inspired by Jay-Z rather than an intended shot at the Brooklyn rapper.)
Jay-Z continued to evoke Nas on his second album In My Lifetime, Vol. 1, which was released in 1997. For starters, Jay-Z sampled Nas’ voice on the song “Rap Game/Crack Game.” Also, on the song “Where I’m From,” Jay-Z declares: “I’m from where niggas pull your card, and argue all day about/Who’s the best MCs, Biggie, Jay-Z and Nas.”
On the surface, this line can be interpreted as Jay-Z’s acknowledgment of Nas’ greatness. It should be noted, however, that this line comes not long after Jay-Z says, “I’m from where the beef is inevitable.” Though Jay-Z was evidently talking about Brooklyn’s Marcy Projects (where he grew up), beef was indeed looming in his near future.
Memphis Bleek Ignites the Spark (Or Was It, Nas?)
In 1999, a Roc-A-Fella emcee by the name of Memphis Bleek brought the two rap superstars closer to war. That year, Bleek featured his mentor Jay-Z on the single “What You Think of That” (off his debut album Coming of Age). In the hook of that song, Bleek rapped, “I’mma ball till I fall, what you think of that?”
For one reason or another, this line made its way to the 1999 single “Nastradamus.” At the very beginning of this track, Nas unleashed his verbal assault: “You wanna ball till you fall, I can help you with that/You want beef? I could let a slug melt in your hat.”
The following year, Bleek made an unmistakable reference to Nas’ discography. On the diss track “My Mind Right,” he spits, “Your lifestyle’s written/So who you supposed to be, play your position.” Since Nas’ second album was entitled It Was Written, Bleek appeared to be questioning the street cred that colored the vivid imagery of Nas’ songs.
(It should be added that Bleek continued to take shots at the Queensbridge emcee long after the conclusion of Jay-Z vs. Nas. Case in point: in a 2021 interview, Bleek claimed that Nas doesn’t have enough songs to compete with Jay-Z’s discography.)
The Takeover: Jay-Z Declares War
The involvement of Memphis Bleek meant that his mentor would not remain silent for long. In June 2001, Jay-Z finally clapped back at Nas.
In front of a jam-packed crowd at the Hot 97 Summer Jam, he performed a new song called “Takeover.” After dropping bombs on another adversary (Prodigy of Mobb Deep), Jay-Z unleashed his coup de grâce: “Ask Nas, he don’t want it with Hov.”
Just watching the wobbly footage of this moment on YouTube gives me the goosebumps. With the frenzied roar of the crowd that night, the first major rap beef of the 21st century officially began.
It didn’t take long for Nas to register a response. A few weeks after Jay-Z’s “Takeover” bombshell, Nas released a freestyle called “Stillmatic” via mixtape. Rapping over Rakim and Eric B’s “Paid in Full,” Nas launched a verbal assault against both mentor and student.
With the lines “N.Y. City, grab a hold and ride with me/Rip the Freeway, shoot through Memphis with Money Bags,” he let Memphis Bleek know that their back-and-forth wasn’t over. A few lines afterwards, he raps: “Nas designed your blueprint, who you kidding?/Is he H to izz-O, M to izz-O?/For shizzle, you phony, the rapping version of Sisqo.”
I’m not gonna lie: Nas’ flow on this freestyle was immaculate. I also think that it’s wonderfully poetic that Nas picked a song by his idol (and fellow East Coast luminary) Rakim to launch his counterattack. Clearly, the gloves had come off as Nas fired this retaliatory passage at Jay-Z.
Despite all the circumstances that unfolded on the morning of September 11, 2001, Jay-Z proceeded with the release of his sixth studio album, The Blueprint. This album included a new version of “Takeover,” in which Jay-Z unleashed a brutal, systematic attack on Nas via a new verse.
Aside from questioning Nas’ street cred as Memphis Bleek had done, Jay-Z ridiculed Nas for falling “from top 10 to not mentioned at all.” He also mocked Nas’ subsequent releases after his strong debut project (“Four albums in 10 years, nigga? I could divide/That’s one every…let’s say two, two of them shits was due/One was ‘nah,” the other was Illmatic/That’s a one-hot-album-every-10-year average”).
The two versions of “Takeover” seemed like a one-two combination that Nas couldn’t parry. With the hot crowd response from the Hot 97 Summer Jam and the fiery verse added to the studio version, Jay-Z looked close to scoring a knockout.
Ether: Nas Goes Tit For Tat
With his back against the wall, Nas exacted his lyrical revenge in a particularly savage way. On December 4, 2001—the same day that Jay-Z turned 32—he dropped the infamous track “Ether,” which unleashed a plethora of insults aimed at his nemesis.
On one level, Nas fired petty, almost childish insults: he called his enemies “Gay-Z and Cock-A-Fella Records,” and he made fun of Jay-Z’s “dick-suckin’ lips” as well as his age (“You thirty-six in a karate class?/You Tae-Bo ho”).
Putting Jay-Z’s standing in the industry into perspective, Nas claimed that “Eminem murdered you on your shit,” a reference to the Hov-Em collaboration “Renegade.” As an Eminem devotee, I have to agree with Nas a thousand percent. As great as Jay-Z is, Eminem’s bars and rhythm pushed his “Renegade” verses to the backseat.
Nas also accused Jay-Z of appropriating fellow New Yorkers KRS-One (“…his manuscript just sound stupid/When K.R.S. already made an album called Blueprint”) and The Notorious B.I.G. (“How much of Biggie’s rhymes is gon’ come out our fat lips?”).
Taking it a step further, Nas called out Jay-Z for a comment that he allegedly made about the late king of Brooklyn: “First Biggie’s your man, then you got the nerve to say/That you better than B.I.G.” (Around the same time, in an interview with FELON magazine, Nas doubled down on his claim that Jay-Z considered himself above Biggie.)
Ultimately, Nas asserted his claim to the rap throne: “The king is back/Where my crown at?” (This claim would be bolstered by releasing his fifth studio album Stillmatic two weeks after “Ether” came out.) Having responded in kind to the initial barrage by Jay-Z, Nas once again commanded the attention of the hip-hop community.
More impressively, the impact of Nas’ diss track has still not subsided: to this day, the term “Ether” (along with the improvised verb “Ethered”) is used by rap fans to refer to a particularly powerful diss. I can compare this to the way that the term “Stan,” popularized by the smash hit off Eminem’s The Marshall Mathers LP, has entered mainstream discourse.
On a final note regarding “Ether,”: the track’s release came at a precarious time in the state that both Nas and Jay-Z called home. At the time, New Yorkers were still reeling from the terror that unfolded on September 11.
As explained by popular D.J. Sway Galloway in an MTV News special, the diss track “Ether” (as well as Jay-Z’s response track) gave the people of New York something else to talk about, and it helped assure them “that everything is getting back to normal.”
The Last Legs Of The Rivalry
The bombshells that Jay-Z and Nas exchanged in late 2001 (“Takeover” and “Ether”) marked the climax of their feud. Though none of their subsequent releases came close to the intensity of those two tracks, they nevertheless continued to trade barbs till the following year.
Shortly after the release of “Ether,” the radio release of Jay-Z’s response track generated a buzz. However, when “Supa Ugly” hit the airwaves on Hot 97, the track could not quite match the lyrical impact that “Ether” had made. It did, however, stir up some controversy.
On “Supa Ugly,” Jay-Z claimed that he had been having an affair with Nas’ then-girlfriend Carmen Bryan. Notably, after the song’s release, Jay-Z called in to Hot 97 to apologize to listeners (including his mother, Gloria Carter) who may have been offended by this particular assertion. (And here’s some more controversy: in her 2007 autobiography, Bryan claimed that she did have an affair with Jay-Z.)
In late 2002, parting shots were fired by both camps. On the title track of his seventh studio album, The Blueprint 2, Jay-Z named himself the winner of the feud (“I get the spoils ’cause the victor is me”); and once again questioned Nas’ authenticity and street cred (“You’re an actor, you’re not who you’re depicted to be”).
A month after the release of The Blueprint 2, Nas put out his sixth album God’s Son. On the track “Last Real Nigga Alive,” Nas called Jay-Z’s “Takeover” a “sneak attack,” as he was preoccupied with taking care of his ailing mother. Nas went on to claim, though, that he overcame the odds to emerge as the victor of the rivalry (“I was Scarface, Jay was Manolo/It hurt me when I had to kill him and his whole squad for dolo”).
After The Blueprint 2 and God’s Son, some more verbal shots were exchanged by the two rappers. However, Jay-Z’s temporary retirement (as signified by the release of The Black Album) effectively ended the hostilities.
The Beef Finally Ends
Fast forward to 2005, when it was announced that Jay-Z and Friends would take over the Power 105 Power House concert in New Jersey. During an interview with radio personality Ed Lover, Jay-Z made it clear that he would “air out” an artist or two (meaning that he intended to humiliate some unfortunate fellows on stage).
Since no guest list was released for the concert, speculation about Jay-Z’s latest casualties ran rampant. Indeed, it seemed as though Jay-Z would replicate the fierce onslaught of 2001’s Summer Jam when he performed “Takeover” for the first time. For good measure, the concert went on to be named “I Declare War.”
But, towards the end of the October 27 concert, Jay-Z did the unthinkable: he brought out his long-time rival Nas on stage. With an unambiguous proclamation (“All that beef sh** is done”) from Hov, the feud was finally brought to an end.
Then, in a historic moment for hip hop, Jay-Z and Nas put on a live performance of their smash hits “Dead Presidents II” and “The World is Yours.” (I couldn’t help but notice that both songs are track number four on these artists’ outstanding debut albums.) Afterwards, Jay-Z ceded the stage to Nas for a short set that included “N.Y. State of Mind” and “It Ain’t Hard to Tell.”
With their beef behind them, Nas signed with Jay-Z’s Def Jam in 2006. The two all-time greats have since collaborated on a number of tracks, with their first team-up being “Black Republican” (a track on Nas’ 2006 album Hip Hop is Dead). In a 2016 XXL article, Nas described how he and Jay-Z took their sweet time to come up with their verses as they listened to the track’s instrumental (lifted from no less than The Godfather, Part II.)
Other collaborations between the two icons include their guest tracks on Ludacris’ “I Do It for Hip Hop,”; the Nas song “Analyze This,”; and the Jay-Z song “B.B.C.” (which also featured his wife, Beyoncé). One of their most recent team-ups was on the 2021 DJ Khaled song “Sorry Not Sorry,” in which they mightily flexed their financial glory.
After waging one of the most memorable wars in hip hop history, Jay-Z and Nas revealed in the common ground that they found: undisputed success on the summit of the industry.
Bottom Line
Like the legendary showdowns between Larry Bird and Magic Johnson, Jay-Z vs. Nas was a wildly entertaining battle that has stood the test of time. In all likelihood, generations of fans will continue to hold barbershop debates in which the merits of “Takeover” and “Ether” will be dissected to no end.
By inspiring this discourse, the rivalry between Jay-Z and Nas captures the very essence of hip-hop music: passionate competition in which lyrical wit is king.
Sources
- High Snobiety
- XXL Mag, 1 , 2
- Complex, 1
- HipHop Dx
- OnSmash
- Vibe
- Distractify
- The Source
- Youtube
- Central Sauce
- The Things
- MTV News, 1
- Level Medium
- The Ringer
FAQs
Answer: Strong arguments can be made for either competitor as the victor of this feud. The best shots fired in this war of words—Jay-Z’s “Takeover” and Nas’ “Ether”—were both haymakers that would have left other rappers lying in the dust.
For what it’s worth, New York-based rapper Cam’ron (who has had a score to settle with both artists) offers a more nuanced assessment. In a 2017 XXL article, Cam explained that Nas won the battle—that is, he prevailed in the lyrical aspect thanks to “Ether”—but Jay-Z won the war by becoming Nas’ boss at Def Jam.
Answer: The rivalry between Jay-Z and Nas stands head and shoulders above other hip-hop feuds because of its unmatched impact. On the one hand, no subsequent rap beef has generated as much adulation and anticipation as the 2001 releases of Hov and Esco. On the other hand, the rivalry pushed the two competitors themselves to bring nothing less than their A-game every time they crafted their next piece of lyrical assault.
Answer: In 2018, there was some speculation that Jay-Z was re-igniting the beef with his rival-turned-friend. On June 15, Nas dropped his twelfth studio album, Nasir. The very next day, however, Jay-Z and Beyoncé released their collaborative project Everything is Love. Though netizens were abuzz with the implications of these release dates, there are no indications otherwise that Jay-Z and Nas are feuding once again.