It’s a story full of clichés with “never say never” and “time heals all wounds” at the forefront of one of the most monumental battles of all time. Enter its two main characters: Nas, born Nasir bin Olu Dara Jones of Queensbridge, NY, and Shawn Corey Carter otherwise known as Jay Z of Brooklyn, NY. Both prolific lyricists, hip hop visionaries, and commercial successes. One known for his poetic style lyrics and flow, while the other for his metaphoric lines and crafty word play...both ultimately vying to be the undisputed “King of New York”.

And so the story begins
Beginning as a battle between Nas and Jay Z’s protégé Memphis Bleek, Memphis Bleek made a song entitled “Memphis Bleek Is,” a track that, whether intentional or not, was strikingly similar in concept to Nas’ “Nas Is Like”. On his same debut album Coming of Age, Memphis Bleek recorded "What You Think Of That" featuring Jay Z where he says, “I'ma ball 'til I fall/what you think of that?". To call him out for biting his style, Nas retaliated on his 1999 Nastradamus album in the track entitled “Nastradamus” with "If you wanna ball 'til you fall/I can help you with that/Want beef?/I could let a slug melt in your hat”. Perceiving this as a diss, Memphis Bleek directly responded by attacking Nas’s street credibility on “My Mind is Right” from his Understanding LP by saying, "Your lifestyle's written/so who you supposed to be?/ Play your position," a subject that would later resurface during Jay Z’s battle with Nas. Not wanting to be outdone, Nas responded on Nas and Ill Will Records Present: QB's Finest by featuring himself on the track “Da Bridge 2001,” calling out the whole Roc-A-Fella crew. This time not only including Memphis Bleek, but also Damon Dash, Beanie Siegel, and of course, Jay Z.

Conflict arises
Nas’ last diss is what would resonate most with Jay Z and spark the beginning of a rivalry that would produce three of the most superhot diss tracks in hip hop history. Originally recorded to diss Mobb Deep, Jay Z wasted no time in responding to Nas in the premiere of his song “Takeover”. By adding in a short one-liner at the end of the track he called Nas out during his performance at the 2001 Hot 97 Summer Jam concert in New York City. Despite Jay Z’s barely-there diss, Nas retaliated by recording the underground “Stillmatic Freestyle” which sampled Rakim and Eric B.'s "Paid in Full" beat, once again attacking Jay Z and his Roc-A-Fella label. Jay Z quickly went back to the studio, rerecorded a new version of “Takeover” on his 2001 album The Blueprint and dedicated the third, longest and strongest verse of the reinvented track to dissing Nas. In the new “Takeover” Jay Z claimed that Nas was struggling to stay on top by not having put out a hot album since Illmatic and that he had fabricated his life growing up on the streets.

“Takeover” soon became the first track to publicize the feud between the two, and the seriousness of Jay Z’s words indicated to Nas that his opponent was ready to rumble. “Takeover” deserved a strong, well-thought out response and after some time, Nas followed up with a full counter attack on his reprisal track “Ether”.

“Ether” was an entire song jam-packed with multiple disses. In “Ether” Nas spits about everything from accusing Jay Z of biting lyrics from the Notorious B.I.G., how he looks like JJ Evans from Good Times (not at all someone you’d want to be compared to in the looks department), and how he brown-nosed his way to the top. In addition to that, Nas suggests that Jay Z was the one behind the stabbing of record executive Lance “Un” Riviera, calls him out as a superficial artist who sold out to the pop community, and makes fun of the fact that Eminem, a guest artist on his album, overshadowed him on his own track entitled “Renegade”.

“Ether’s” chorus alone demonstrated that Nas was pulling out all the stops and was more than able to put his competitor in his place. Jay Z was going to have to really step it up to meet the match of “Ether”. And so he did with “Super Ugly” sampling Nas’ “Got Urself a Gun” beat in the first verse and then switching to Dr. Dre’s “Bad Intentions” later. This time, he not only resurfaced questions of Nas’ street credibility, but also ridiculed his style and flow, and informed everyone of his alleged affair with Nas’ daughter’s mother, Carmen Bryan.

Despite the intensity of the material, “Super Ugly” was not as well received as “Takeover” and “Ether”. Jay Z sucker punched Nas by inadvertently bringing his child into the battle, and Nas never quite knew how to retaliate. Jay Z’s mom was even quoted to say that she felt that “Super Ugly” was done in poor taste. Shortly after the release of “Super Ugly”, Jay Z publicly apologized to Nas on Hot 97 in New York. This unofficially marked the end of the rivalry.

So did that mean that Nas won the battle? No one knew exactly, and in later interviews, both men claimed they thought they themselves had won. To tie up loose ends for the fans, Hot 97 decided to conduct a battle of the beats showdown between the two rappers where they played all three diss tracks and left it up to the listeners to decide the winner. Results showed that approximately 52% felt Nas won with “Ether” while 48% thought “Super Ugly” was the winning track.

Despite the outcome, the battle proved beneficial to both men’s careers. While “Ether” marked the reemergence of Nas after Nastradamus, and established him as the unofficial “King of New York”, Jay Z went on to become one of the most successful rappers of the 1990s and 2000s and had an estimated worth of nearly 300 million. In addition, their battle inadvertently reflected the fact that each lyricist held a certain level of respect for the other. Their beef proved to be more about public humbling, embarrassment, and who was superior lyrically. Unlike other rivalries in hip hop history, violence was never an option as neither ever intended to physically gun down the other. Their focus was always on the music and on using their words as their weapons.

Moving Forward
In 2005, both Nas and Jay Z shocked the hip hop community by ending their feud and appearing onstage together at Jay Z’s “I Declare War” concert at Madison Square Gardens. Then in 2006, Nas signed a recording contract and a label deal with Jay Z’s Def Jam records.

Recently Nas and Jay Z sat down with MTV’s Sway to discuss their future working together and their interpretation of their highly publicized beef. Both laughed at how everything worked out. It had truly turned out to be a “never say never” situation as both would have never thought they would end up working together.

So the question now is, is it possible for two ex-rivals to work creatively towards a common goal? In the past, Jay Z has had problems some with collaborating on an album- most notably with R. Kelly on the Best of Both Worlds. With this concern in mind, Jay Z expressed to Sway that he will be working towards making sure that Nas’ album will be “100% Nas”. Nas will have free reign to do whatever he wants with his album and while Jay Z will help when needed, he will never interject. So although Jay Z is bringing Nas in under the Def Jam umbrella, Nas will still be able to be Nas, and the “partnership” will never restrain him creatively.

In response to whether Nas’ fans will think he’s sold out, Nas remarks that he can’t really control what people think of him and on teaming up with Def Jam, there is one thing he knows about the industry: “It gives you a freedom, but it's also controlled by people that don't really understand this music or this culture — or respect it. I saw there was a lot of opportunity for me; there was nothing better than to ride with this movement right here. Where Jay is at, Def Jam, it felt like the people that are there respect it, and love the culture even more than this man (referring to Jay Z)”. He hopes his fans will ultimately understand that. So despite jabs at each others lyrical ability, career choices, personal life, and struggle to rise to the top, both have decided to dissolve the existing beef between them. But while they haven’t forgotten their old rivalry, they have forgiven one another and are ready to move forward.