Jay-Z’s Takeover Vs Nas’ Ether: Let’s Get This Settled

A heated debate me and my friends always have is the comic book-esque war between Jay-Z and Nas that occurred in 2001 (at the time of this writing some 8 years ago). Now I’m sure everyone who knows anything has heard all the arguments, let me just re-cap them below (feel free to add your own) and then please vote in the poll. This is poll is going to end this whole Jay-Z vs Nas debate once and for all, okay? Okay maybe not, but at least we’ll try.

“The Jay-Z Won” Side
People (my friends) like to say Jay-Z won the war of words with Nas because:
(1) Jay-Z has way more money than Nas
(2) Jay-Z had “relations” with Nas’ babymother (which are detailed on the diss Jay-Z did to Nas over the Super-Ugly beat).
(3) Jay-Z signed Nas to Def Jam which somehow made Nas, Jay-Z’s slave.
(4) Jay-Z’s “Takeover” re-started Nas’ career
(5) Nas can never make songs that give you the same feeling as a Jay-Z song. Even to this day when a Jay-Z song leaks the internet goes crazy, when a Nas song leaks, not so much.

“The Nas Won” Side
(1) Ether

Now I can’t tell if you can tell whose side I’m on but to make it clear I think Nas won and simply because Ether was just so powerful. While the reasons people say Jay-Z won are true to a degree, they usually are confusing the argument with “who is a better rapper?”. No this is about who won the lyrical war. And “Ether” is like the part in a Van Dame movie (for the younger kids the movie “Fighting”) where the good guy is beaten almost to death and some how comes back and destroys the bad guy who cheated by throwing chalk dust in his eyes. Even though I’m a bigger stan of Jay-Z, you have to put your biases aside and give the W to Nas. For godsakes, Hov had to address Nas three times!

Listen to Nas’ “Ether”
[flashvideo file=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tiOv37e1a7Q /]

Listen to Jay-Z’s “Takeover”
[flashvideo file=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FAnGnevKxJE /]

Listen to Jay-Z’s “Super Ugly”
[flashvideo file=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pKj5Mmg3Lnw /]

Listen to Jay-Z’s “Blueprint 2″
[flashvideo file=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pg8hgYHQov0 /]

[poll id=”42”]

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