“Super Ugly” – December 2001
Enraged by “Ether,” Jay-Z unleashed “Super Ugly.” By no means a subpar response, much of the more effective blows went overshadowed by Jay-Z’s graphic account of his tryst with Nas’ baby momma.
“I got myself a gun/But really, I dont need the heat/Your heart pump project kool-aid you’re sweet/I don’t gotta two-way you gays/This is not beef/This is rap homie/I dont have a scratch on me/You feel Jay soft/Rip jay off/Damn I’m only worth over a hundred million/Look, I got beef with like a hundred children/Niggas with pink suits/Trying to get cute/You a little outta line homie/Don’t let the 9 homie/Put you out your mind homie/Just rhyme homie/Kick yo little lies/I kick my real facts/Like you sneaking out the back at the Source Sound lab (uh)/We wasnt chasing you/We had a taping too/We came through to do our one, two thang/It wasn’t a Rocafella come through thing/If it was on like that/I would come through Queens/With Queens niggas you know how I do/Look I got mo’ shooters in Queens Bridge than you/Niggas’ll tie you up on the Colosseum roof/And open beer bottles off the boy’s chipped tooth/Look Here
[Verse 2:]
Listen I’m the J, the A, to the fuck this broad/This nigga never sold Asprin/How you Escobar?/Had to buy your chain back last time you got robbed/The nerve of this coward nigga….(Oh My God)/And I don’t rap rumors or innuendo/I bring it to you live lift up ya window/Let the public peek in see your dirty laundry/Ya’ll dont want me to continue (Oh!)
> [Verse 3:]
> Me and the boy A.I. got more in Common than just ballin and rhymin Get It?/Moore N Carmen/I came in ya Bentley backseat/Skeeted in your Jeep/Left condoms on your baby seat/Here nigga the gloves is off/The love is done/It’s whateva, wheneva, howeva Nigga “1”/And since you infatuated with sayin that gay shit/Guess you was kissin my dick when you was kissin that bitch/Nasty shit you thought I was boning Ranette/You calling Carm’ a hundred times I was boning her neck/You got a baby by that broad/You can’t disown her yet/When does ya lies end?/When does the truth begin?/When does reality set in?/Or does it not matter/Gotta hurt that I’m ya baby mama’s favorite rapper/And ask your current girl/She know what’s up/Holla at a real nigga/Nigga, I don’t give a fuck”
Hot 97 famously conducted a poll pitting “Ether” against “Super Ugly” and Nas was declared the winner of the battle. Perhaps more damaging than losing the Hot 97 poll or the backlash Jay-Z received for violating the mafia rule of no women and children, was his loss of composure. “Super Ugly” presented a Jay-Z most fans had never seen before. He was not his typical even handed self. The Jay-Z on display on “Super Ugly” was frustrated and angry, clearly affected by Nas’ attacks on his street credibility, style, and physical appearance. This helped continue the narrative Nas had scripted for Jay-Z, and made it appear his soul was in fact burning slow just as Nas said it would. Jay-Z was so angered by Nas he even made media rounds suggesting they box on pay per view. All this did was reemphasize the fact he had lost the battle. No champion has ever been known to stalk a defeated opponent to demand a rematch.
Jay-Z has won at every arena he’s entered in life. He succeeded in the drug game without ever getting pinched. He started a record label from scratch and molded it into an empire while becoming one of the biggest stars in music. He’s sold sports clubs, clothing lines, sold out Yankee Stadium, Madison Square Garden, and played stadiums with U2. He became president of the most storied record label in Hip Hop and even married and knocked up one of the biggest pop stars on the planet. With such an impressive resume of winning, if Jay-Z’s Brooklyn Nets won an NBA championship this year no one should be surprised. But when it came to the greatest battle in Hip Hop history,
Jay-Z couldn’t beat Nas.
People still argue over the Nas vs. Jay-Z battle as if it happened yesterday. “Ether” altered the trajectory of both Nas and Jay-Z’s career forever. Nas was given new life and no longer pretended to cater to his critics. He began experimenting openly with his sound and pushing the boundaries of his creativity. Jay-Z on the other hand showed uncharacteristic flapability and was sent reeling for a few years. Showing new vulnerability, he lowered himself to engage in silly beefs with Jim Jones and Dip Set while releasing the most lackluster albums of his career. When he finally came out of his funk and buried the hatchet with Nas, he grew more comfortable experimenting with his sound as well.
Styles make fights is perhaps the oldest adage in sports. It also holds true when analyzing the Nas vs. Jay-Z battle. By actually putting pen to paper, Nas was more exacting and clinical with “Ether” than Jay-Z could be with his freestyle based attacks. Jay-Z threw punchline blows that would have been better received in a live audience setting rather than on wax where this battle was waged. While very damaging and enough to destroy most other rappers’ careers, Jay-Z’s attacks didn’t probe as deeply as “Ether”. In the end this is why they came up just short.
Many unanswered questions still hover around “Ether” and the Nas vs. Jay-Z battle. What was Foxy Brown’s involvement? Foxy worked closely with Trackmasters, producers with ties to both Nas and Rocafella. She also performed verses written for her by both Nas and Jay-Z. Perhaps she might have known about the bad feelings that developed between them. The same could be said for DJ Clue. In fact, many of the most lethal shots fired in this war of words took place on his legendary mixtapes. Although he was signed by Rocafella, Cluemanatti hails from Queens and has always shared a special bond with QB artists, especially Nas. This makes it unlikely he didn’t know what was percolating between the two Hip-Hop titans.
Many of the answers to the questions concerning the Nas vs. Jay-Z battle lie beyond the grave, a really B.I.G. grave. The Notorious B.I.G. seems to have played a major role in their rivalry. Jay-Z felt it was his responsibility as B.I.G.’s friend to take his place on the throne in his honor. From Nas’ perspective, Biggie’s death left a Notorious void Jay-Z had no business trying to fill.
Nas seems to have respected Biggie so deeply he resented Jay-Z for vocalizing his intent to fill his spot. Nas also interpreted Jay-Z’s assertion that he was a better rapper than Biggie as a sign of disloyalty. Nas considered Biggie to be his peer but did not respect Jay-Z in the same light. This is why the love Jay-Z consistently threw toward Nas’ direction went unreciprocated. Toss in some baby momma drama and you now have the ingredients for a subliminal war of words that had to eventually run hot.
It is a testament to both Nas and Jay-Z’s greatness that they were both able to survive one another and remain Top Five Dead or Alive emcees ten years after their epic battle. Truth is, even after all this time we really don’t know exactly why the Nas vs. Jay-Z battle came to pass, but we do know how it ended. We know “Ether”, and we know even after 10 years it’s still making Hip-Hop’s soul burn slow.
Special thank you to shelz for yeoman work putting the music in to this labor of love.
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Lovely analysis.
Good stuff. But no mention of The Message, We Will Survive, What You Think Of That, My Mind Right, Nastradamus and The Bridge 2001. I think The Bridge 2001 was the reason the Rocafella artists were freestyling over Queens instrumentals. Nas had dissed the whole Rocafella click subliminally on that record while bigging up Queens.