With the recent release of Jay-Z's Blueprint 3, and with questions swirling about why Nas isn't featured on the album (after he was allegedly offered a guest spot); & just for the simple fact that there hasn't been a really good hip-hop battle in a long time (the best rap battle this year involves pop diva Mariah Carey, & almost involved Nick Jr.), I think now is an appropriate time to revisit the greatest battle hip-hop has ever witnessed.
Most hip-hop fans agree that the rap battle which took place between Jay-Z and Nas was one of the greatest; however when it comes to determining the champion of the bout, the decision is less than unanimous. Despite the ambiguous results, the majority of hip-hop fans seem to mistakenly believe Nas won. This misinterpretation is largely due to subconscious superficiality, sympathy, and poor lyrical examination.
To make a legitimate analysis of the battle and determine the winner, one has to understand both possible perspectives of the argument. The ultimate objective in any musical rivalry is to convince listeners that you are better than your opponent. Jay-Z was hugely successful at the time; meanwhile Nas's once-legendary reputation had drastically descended, especially after his worse-received album, "Nastradamous". Therefore, many fans were surprised and excited that Nas, who at the time was caring for his fatally-ill mother, felt inspired enough to respond at all to the challenge. His first straightforward dis, the "H to the OMO" freestyle, was a weak attack on Jay's honesty and originality. Claiming that Jay-Z copied his rhyming style, and fabricated a criminal past, yet giving no explanations or reason for such claims. The most effective line is where Nas claims to have collected money from Jay-Z sampling his voice.
However, on the 'Takeover', Jay flipped this into one of the most memorable lines of the battle. "So yeah I sampled your voice, you was usin' it wrong, You made it a hot line, I made it a hot song", Jay confessed to Nas' influence, while maintaining his superiority. Then adding insult to injury, Jay clarifies that Nas actually did not collect any money from the sample, instead his former publishing company did. Jay-Z belittled Nas's career to "a one hot album every ten year average", and made the blatant assessment, "smarten up Nas". The latter phrase became so memorable that a general hip-hop website has been named after it. The last verse contains rhymes that still pertain to Nas, yet double as timeless philosophies, such as "A wise man told me don't argue with fools, Because people from a distance can't tell who is who'".
Nas's response was not as explosive as diethyl ether, but it was just as transparent. 'Ether' was a plethora of tired battle cliches, including father-son comparisons, sellout accusations, and homosexual implications. Before, Jay made a clever subliminal allusion to involvement with the mother of Nas's daughter, warning "You know who, did you know what With you know who, but just keep that between me and you (for now)". However, since Nas did not heed the warning, and instead made harsher and more sexual disses, Jay-Z decided that detailing his affair had become fair game. Therefore 'Supa Ugly' was full of scandalous imagery which some dismissed as a desperate low blow, but it was a logical course of action that Nas could have prevented.
About a year later, Jay-Z decided to make his victory more apparent, by ending the battle with more respectable and reflective lyrics. Jay-Z responds to Nas's criticism that he traded his soul for riches, by citing his own philanthropy in contrast to Nas's lack thereof. Jay goes on to discuss the fact that people believe Nas to be more artistic, conscious, poetic, or "real", for superficial reasons. He states that Nas's fans fall for his image: he appears to be wise because he wears kufi caps, and sounds deeper because of the vagueness of his lyrics.
Jay's lyrics were more original and didactic, and they were more critical than disparaging. His trilogy of tirades redefined how rappers approach battling, both offensively and defensively. As far as the results, Jay-Z summed it up best, "I've been real all my life, they confuse it with conceit, Since I will not lose, they try to help him cheat."
