Ether (song) - Significance

Significance

Jay-Z's "Supa Ugly" marked the "official" end of the battle, although references to the beef can be found on Nas' "Last Real Nigga Alive" from God's Son, "U Wanna Be Me" from 8 Mile and "Everybody's Crazy" from The Lost Tapes, and Jay-Z's "Blueprint 2" from The Blueprint 2: The Gift and the Curse album.

The Nas vs. Jay-Z feud was beneficial to both men's careers. Stillmatic and "Ether" had marked the reemergence of Nas to the hip hop scene two years after having released Nastradamus, considered by many fans and critics to have been the weakest album in his discography. Many fans still credit the feud with resurrecting Nas' career; while he has not matched the commercial success of It Was Written or I Am..., his work since Stillmatic has been better received critically. The battle also boosted Jay-Z's career, giving him much notoriety for having the bravado to attack Nas, who was looked at as more of a veteran than Jay-Z.

Though both rappers referenced the feud on their follow-up albums, "Takeover" and "Ether" remain two of the most known and best-received disses in hip-hop history. The feud (or "beef") between the two rappers has since been reconciled, and they have gone on to collaborate on the song "Black Republican", from Nas's 2006 album Hip Hop is Dead, "Success", from Jay-Z's 2007 album American Gangster, and "I Do It For Hip Hop" from Ludacris' 2008 album Theater of the Mind.

Ron Browz, the producer of the song, had nicknamed himself Etherboy, due to producing the hit.

The word "ether" also became a new term in the hip hop community shortly after the song was released, meaning to humiliate or insult someone to a great extent.

While in recent years the said rivalry has long passed and become a matter of musical history, remnants of it remain in rumors that Nas was to appear on what would become Jay-Z's first number one hit single, "Empire State of Mind" featuring Alicia Keys. In September 2009, shortly after Jay-Z's Blueprint 3 was released, Nas stated during an interview that he was not invited to perform on the album at all.