Happy Ether Day 2021 (20 Year Anniversary)

[Deltron]

let us also appreciate the jabs throughout the album...

my first album had no guest appearances, the outcome, I'm crowned the best lyricist

I don't kill soloists I only kill squads

Yesterday you begged for a deal, today you tough guys

 

[YourMumsRoom]

Im talking about offline. On SOHH, basically, it was posters that had to rely the info back and forth. There was no social media like that. So when shyt happened on the radio, there would be someone posting that shyt asap on the forum. Then we would have to wait for the full story.


With that said, nas and jay had their supporters and haters so it was even. It was hard to tell who won really if we were to talk about SOHH or the Spots opinion. The NASLOST campaign started back then too after ether. Thats to show how it was back then. You just picked a side. I sided with Nas back then. I was a huge fan of the mobb and the wu at that time so i was biased towards jay though jay was running shyt back then. He was the most popular living rapper out at that time. No doubt about that.

We didnt have that advanced streaming shyt. Someone had to tape that shyt and convert it to mp3 and realplayer that shyt. It was between windows media and real player.

Wow, well remembered bro.
Damn that 'Nas Lost, Gnauze, Brad Piff' sh!t was rampant back then.

 

[IllmaticDelta]

 

[IllmaticDelta]

callin my crib and I ain't even give you my numbers

jay on some

waiting for that call back

Calling my crib, and I ain't even give you my number." - Nas




From Prodigy's book

 

[IllmaticDelta]

The nas fat man scoop interview was a classic too. I remember hearing all this shyt live.. best time in hip hop…

facts...and I taped all of them

Fat Man Scoop
Angie
Miss Jones
Star (Star & buckwild)
Funk Flex
...

 

[Chip Skylark]

you thinking you getting girls now cause of your looks (girls girls girl)
Negro please.

The fact that Jay is still insecure about that line til this day lol


“There’s no such thing as an ugly billionaire I’m cute”

smh

 

[HipHopStan]

I bet on the wrong horse (or should I say

) on this one. Jay was on top of the world in 2001. He had just had a successful set during Summer Jam where he finished off Prodigy, had the whole crowd eating out of the palm of his hand, and then got a co-sign from Michael Jackson, himself. Then, he dropped the critically acclaimed Blueprint album as well. It was and still is considered one of his best albums. Throughout all of this, we hadn't heard a peep out of Nas since that Stillmatic freestyle. I was on Jay's side BTW. I thought Nas had fell off and Jay was spitting some truth. The man had fell off and was sounding corny.

Then Dec 4, 2001 hit. I listened to "Ether" and at first denial hit and I was like "Weak. " I listened to it a few more times and my mindset went from the previous statement to shock and questioning whether or not Nas had just made a dope diss track. Finally, acceptance hit. He did. It was confirmed too when "Supa Ugly" dropped and that Hot 97 poll was conducted which Nas won. Angie Martinez sounded like she was conducting a funeral live on air with the person everyone was mourning (Jay) sitting right there with her.

It's been twenty years now and December 2001 was one helluva way to cap off a crazy year. Jay finally admitted defeat on "The Blueprint 2" and everything was over. They both moved on and released some dop albums - and Nas, who I had thought fell off, had a great resurgence period. I became a fan again. They eventually went on to break bread in 2005 and collab together later on. It was a hot time to be alive and be a hip-hop fan. We'll never get to that level ever again sadly so it's good to remanence

.

 

[Piff Perkins]

It’s been said earlier but is worth repeating…the thing that makes all this more impressive is that Nas did it solo. He went against the hottest crew in rap, led by the hottest rapper (or top 3). At a time when Nas wasn’t really that dude anymore. Last album was weak, some questionable decisions etc.

So you have the hottest crew, top 3 hottest rapper, and the entire New York radio media VS one man. And he still won. And he’s still around today, winning Grammys and making crazy money. This could have very easily been a Canibus/Kool Moe Dee situation where decades later one guy is still successful and the other guy is in a ditch. You can tell a LOT of media figures wish that happened to Nas. That he was broke, still dealing with tax issues, still fukked up, dropping music people clowned, etc.

 

[Anti-Anime]

ether day on a weekend

 

[DonRe]

8th grade when this shyt came out. This is what actually made me a nas stan, actually it was the stillmatic freestyle, and promoted me to buy my first nas album.

So many debates in school. So many jay nuthuggers.

 

[315]

You love my style nikka

 

[Sankofa Alwayz]

It’s been said earlier but is worth repeating…the thing that makes all this more impressive is that Nas did it solo. He went against the hottest crew in rap, led by the hottest rapper (or top 3). At a time when Nas wasn’t really that dude anymore. Last album was weak, some questionable decisions etc.

So you have the hottest crew, top 3 hottest rapper, and the entire New York radio media VS one man. And he still won. And he’s still around today, winning Grammys and making crazy money. This could have very easily been a Canibus/Kool Moe Dee situation where decades later one guy is still successful and the other guy is in a ditch. You can tell a LOT of media figures wish that happened to Nas. That he was broke, still dealing with tax issues, still fukked up, dropping music people clowned, etc.

Even in Verzuz this still holds water, most especially with the DJ warmup during The LOX vs. Dipset battle. nikka was playing hella Hov songs and maybe one NaS song if any at all. Ironically that was the same DJ who thought it was a good idea to play Hit Em Up to an NYC crowd

 

[The Intergalactic Koala]

First time hearing this track as a adolescent marsupial, it left a impact on my life. The fact that this dude had the entire city of Philly like in unison was some revolutionary shyt. Had the man crying on the radio station like a barely hitting 100 following IG THOT.

Yeesh....cold world

 

[Sankofa Alwayz]

 

[Piff Perkins]

Even in Verzuz this still holds water, most especially with the DJ warmup during The LOX vs. Dipset battle. nikka was playing hella Hov songs and maybe one NaS song if any at all. Ironically that was the same DJ who thought it was a good idea to play Hit Em Up to an NYC crowd

I can understand that part though. From a pure DJ perspective, Hov has more songs you can play in that setting. Most of the tracks they warm the crowd up with are either club anthems, hits, ladies tracks etc. Hov has more of those than Nas, and he has more recent records you can play too. Nas clearly moved away from feeding the streets with anthems and shyt at some point, while Jay kept going. Made You Look might be one of the last ones right? Couple years later in 2004 Jay had the Black Album, with multiple radio hits AND street anthems like What More Can I Say, PSA, 99 Problems etc. Nas released Street's Disciple. To me that's the point where things really started separating in terms of what Nas was focused on (conceptual albums, more conscious shyt) and what Jay was focused on (putting points on the board, singles, Madison Square Garden, etc).