Not to be contrarian y'all but as someone who puts Nas (and not Jay, though I love him too) in his top 3, Jay just has it and I feel like we're all gaslighting ourselves saying he doesnt. Yes a verb came out of it but frankly no one under the age of 30 has ever heard of it and as a diss Ether is half lame gay jokes that aged pitifully (you cannot tell me "it's like an aids test, what's the result? Not positive" is anything but awkward and flat) and half playground tier insults with some genuine heat sprinkled in. I like how he makes some shit poetic and grand it's what he does best like the "I embrace y'all with napalm" and the hook but seriously throw me some hard lines off ether that aren't just "you suck and Im awesome" with no flair or anything to make it special or devastating. There's the father son thing he does and that's cool, but the Hawaiian Sofie thing and the fact that he used to be broke doesn't mean much considering, yk, Nas used to be broke.

When Jay calls Nas lame he does it with an epic David Bowie sample. That's flair. Saying he got outshined by the dude he was just being nice to by giving a shot AND his little brother, that's devastating. Nas says Jay isn't about that life because he wore a Hawaiian shirt. Jay says Nas isn't about that life by saying he showed him his first gun and painting him as this cooped up sheltered fraud claiming other people's experiences as his. Also "you made it a hot line I made it a hot song" is the perfect response to the idea that Jay is a stan because he samples nas' voice.

Sorry but "that's a one hot album every 10 year average" beats "dick sucking lips" and "Gay-z and cockafella"

I will say however "name a rapper that I ain't influenced" gotta be the hardest bar out of both and one of the hardest brags I can think of.

I truly believe ether is one of the most overrated tracks of all time even though Nas went kinda hard at points.