The FIRST TIME I heard ETHER: Come share your STORY! [Archive]

PeterVankmen

12-04-07, 10:26 AM

My boy came and swooped me and we hit the 105 freeway and headed to the beach (L.A. n1ggas often go to the beach to smoke because it's always warm).

We parked and started blowin that krohnic. Now I wanted to not like the C.D. I admit cuz Jay and Nas were beefin. But damn that INTRO was FIRE to the Stilmatic!

Anyway, he put on the Ehter, and I heard Pac (F##K Jay-z) and my stomach started to crawl.

Lines that got me the 1st time:

Foxy got u hot cuz u kept your face in her puss
Ya man stabbed Un and made you take the blame
EMINEM murdered u on your on sh1t<--that line hurt the most because all the homies had been saying it!

the rest is history

ETHER, the 2000 version of hit em up

MRc.

12-04-07, 10:26 AM

:laugh:

ptahblade07

12-04-07, 10:34 AM

i was workin for a pest control company lol and it was about 9pm and i was doing a late stop listening to the radio in the company truck and power 92 announces they have the comeback song from nas called ether and in my head im sayin "nas you my boy but jay got you" then the song comes on im like "damn finally nas got a hot beat" cause i was just sure he was going to spit over a 1980's throwback track then 1st verse im like okay he warmin up 2nd verse im like damn this kinda hot 3rd verse boooommmm my mouth is wide open and flying down the street not even seein that im doin about 60 on a 35mph street

my last thought "damn nas got him"

next thing you know im gettin calls from my nigs and the fam "damn did you hear that nas ether"

jayshiggs

12-04-07, 10:36 AM

I had heard about it during the week on Mon or Tuesday and people were amping it up crazy. Then on Thurs' day's CM Famalam radio show it was the first thing Lord Sear played. I initially was thinking it was only OK and the hype was unwarranted, then the last verse came on. It was just one poignant vicious line after another. I knew by the end Jay would have to answer for that record it was too much.
The next week or so of radio on Hot 97 is some of the best ever. Nas w/ Fat Man Scoop, Nas and Jungle w. Flex The radio battle w/ Flex, Mr. Cee, Tim Westwood, Angie Mar and Fat Joe tallying the votes. Some other execs and Swizz beats came thru to. some people didn't want to believe Jigga was taking an L, big ups to Fat Joe cause he made sure ninjas kept it 100 and nothing funny style went down. He rode out for Nas. Angie and flex were trying to give Superugly props and everything but the fans calling in were just contradicting their assessments left and right. A lt of people didn't want to express their opinion cause they didn't want to burn any bridges. Shyt was surreal. And then finally Jigga man showing up to angie's show like a day after the radio battle. He was just hurt it was great.
Oh that weekend I went to the coliseum in Queens cause my boy's little bro wanted to get a link and bracelet before he went back to school. The mixtape booth had Ether on repeat all day! It was hilarious. Nas was the king of Queens that day.

NvMe

12-04-07, 10:36 AM

Prop Joe
I had just ordered a fish sammich with a side of fries and peach soda from the corner store. It’s hot in there, so I step outside to get some fresh air when one of the young hoppers pulls up bumping that Ether track by Nas. Everyone just surrounds the boy’s truck like he had a fresh supply of the new yellow tops. Why anyone would want to wake a sleeping giant, I don’t know. Common sense would tell you to join up with the brother and form a rap co-op with him. Yeah, that **** was disgusting. I cancelled my order...well, just the sammich. I got my fries and soda.

http://fiyastarter.com/fs-gfx/etherdayo6/fs-etherday-propjoe.GIF

BossBaller

12-04-07, 10:37 AM

I heard it at the crib....listening to it on some headphones.

Heard the whole second verse and was like :eek:

SUGEKNIGHTJR.

12-04-07, 10:42 AM

It was a cold dark night and i was knitting my Jay-Z comforter together with grandmama's old yarn when SUDDENLY!!!!!!!!!!......

:laugh:

naw..but on the real when i first heard Takover on an advanced copy of the BLUEPRINT album , i thought NAS was dead......over......finished!!!!!!!!!...

so when i got to hear ETHER streamed on this one hip hop site, i forgot the name, i can honestly say like Jayshiggs i wasn't too impressed, i thought it was rather nonchalent and rather boring for a diss song, but come to think of it alot of NAS songs were sounding like that lately.......

i felt he should have came hard like BYATCH IN YOU..or HIT EM UP!!

But i did respect the title of it, i'm into esoteric sciences, so i heard alot about ETHER by reading books by Albert Pike and P.B Randolph so i was intrigued to say the least.

then i was riding the hooptie one day, and it came on the radio during the afternoon, and for some reason i really got to hear the full quality of it, and that BEAT IS WHAT GOT ME, then i heard the lyrics............"happy to break bread with the gods"......and that did it for me......i can honestly say one of the BEST DISS SONGS OF ALL TIME......

.PK5

12-04-07, 10:42 AM

Prop Joe
I had just ordered a fish sammich with a side of fries and peach soda from the corner store. It’s hot in there, so I step outside to get some fresh air when one of the young hoppers pulls up bumping that Ether track by Nas. Everyone just surrounds the boy’s truck like he had a fresh supply of the new yellow tops. Why anyone would want to wake a sleeping giant, I don’t know. Common sense would tell you to join up with the brother and form a rap co-op with him. Yeah, that **** was disgusting.I cancelled my order...well, just the sammich. I got my fries and soda.
http://fiyastarter.com/fs-gfx/etherdayo6/fs-etherday-propjoe.GIF

[Prop Joe returns to clarify further:]
Nah, Imma keep it 100. I got the sammich too...but still
... Ether COULD THEORETICALLY shut down a ***** appetitie for real.

NvMe

12-04-07, 10:45 AM

IGOD777

12-04-07, 10:45 AM

WESTPHILLYCANON

12-04-07, 10:46 AM

I WAS AT MY POP GIRLFREIND HOUSE AND HEr brother Had it on computer and that **** was fire

.PK5

12-04-07, 10:50 AM

I was at a cousins house and he had a bootleg version of Stillmatic and honestly I didnt want to hear it because I actually paid for Nastradamus.

My cousin was a JayZ STAN X1000..so he didnt tell me how
good Ether was. Instead he kept listening to it and looking
kinda irritated.

I asked to listen to it and he was like, "nah man, its real wack...I'll tell
you everything you want to know about it"

I was suspicious..but he would not let the CD player go..and he was
starting to look real worried-like..almost constipated or some sh1t.
So I waited till he went to upstairs and put on the headphones....

my first reaction of the stillmatic intro was :huh: ...damn this is
pretty good. nas is back.

THEN ETHER COMES ON :ohmy: :ohmy: :ohmy:
.....the rest is history

jayshiggs

12-04-07, 10:51 AM

N*IT*2*WIN*IT

12-04-07, 10:53 AM

waitin 4 my baby mother to get off work (on some Baby Boy sh!t). Wendy williams was the 1st to play it in NY, and she played it like 4 times straight! Couldnt believe my ears, just because of how serious Takeover was and I thought it was a wrap!

.PK5

12-04-07, 10:53 AM

lol @ him not wanting you to hear it.
duke was hatin...the look on his face was priceless :laugh:
smh.

the puppetmaster

12-04-07, 10:55 AM

I remember first hearing this shyt when I bought that Kay Slay mixtape with N.O.R.E. on the cover (Grimey Season 33 1/3 or some shyt). I can't recall a time where I was more amazed listening to a song because of how NaS came at him. It was also because, after Hov did Takeover, I honestly didn't think NaS could comeback. He proved me wrong.

Yup, I was sure Nas was a done deal after Takeover because the verse was such a scientific pick apart from a fans perspective. I heard Ether and I knew Jay caught an L
" it was just um... vulgar" if you're comparing the verse to the song. Jay shoulda went at Nas with the entire takeover song. Cuz Ether was just too much

-P-

The Nastiest

12-04-07, 10:56 AM

Roxx the King

12-04-07, 10:57 AM

when he threw all them darts and at the end of the stanza (seemingly out of breathe from spitting all that ammo) said "eminem murdered you on your own sh1t" i almost died because in my circle at that point n!ggas knew that was a fact but wouldn't say it outta respect i guess.

we celebrate december 4 because it is a moment in hip hop history. it reminds me of 50 vs kanye in a way. two different styles battling for supremacy and music won over commercial.... just my opinion....

authentiq

12-04-07, 11:01 AM

heard it and when i heard '' you wanted to be on every one of my classics '' i went :ohmy:

1stCome

12-04-07, 11:03 AM

when dude said "tae bo ho" i almost drove over a median strip

.PK5

12-04-07, 11:06 AM

when dude said "tae bo ho" i almost drove over a median strip
:laugh::laugh::laugh:

HazMat

12-04-07, 11:10 AM

At this point, i wasn't even up on Nas like that, so the first time i heard Take Ova i said "Damn nas is done", plus it took him a mad long time to reply, i mean when take ova came out i was still livin in Jersey but i had moved to NC by the time either came out. I was sittin in the car wit my moms flippin through the radio stations when i heard the "Jay-z" sample (the radio can't say fucc jay-z), i thought it was a new jay song, until i heard nas say "whas up niccas". Once the song was done the first thing i did was went home and downloaded it and studied it

vodkai

12-04-07, 11:10 AM

I was in my dorm room my freshman year in college and all I remember is dogs barking, "FUKK Jay-Z!!!" and thinking damn this nigqa came back and ate Jay... I didn't think he really had a chance after Takeover
:laugh: NOW you're takin' me back! Those barkin' dogs - I forgot all about them. I never got to hear "Ether", I heard it a long time after it was released, 'cause I didn't wanna hear the version with the dogs.

DJ TEKNIK

12-04-07, 11:14 AM

when dude said "tae bo ho" i almost drove over a median strip

:laugh::laugh::laugh:

Diggy_Dat_Niggy

12-04-07, 11:18 AM

http://www.zshare.net/image/5368507b9ffe8f/

Kingofkings

12-04-07, 11:24 AM

I heard it and was stunned, then after i heard it i thought to myself..
Is any of these lines true? The camel joke is classic, the eminem murdered you on your own sh1t. just like jay said that illmatic was nas only good album. More than that i didnt know what more was ill and creative against jay...

IGOD777

12-04-07, 11:24 AM

http://www.zshare.net/image/5368507b9ffe8f/:laugh:

KingSolomon

12-04-07, 11:29 AM

I had a similar reaction to when I first heard Hit Em Up. My brother and I had just got the Stillmatic and went straight to that track. It came on so strong. I heard those first two hits (dunt dunt "Fock Jaaay Zee. Sup nikkaz?") and was like :O. The first verse was cool, but that second verse was ...well...ether. I was wil'in when it go to "R.O.C. get gunned up and clapped quick" The thing that made Ether so hard was the beat. The lyrics were nice, but the beat amplified it. Ether on any other beat would not have been as vicious.

Guess Who?

12-04-07, 11:30 AM

I thought...is that it?

QuestCalledTribe

12-04-07, 11:37 AM

I was in my dorm room my freshman year in college and all I remember is dogs barking, "FUKK Jay-Z!!!" and thinking damn this nigqa came back and ate Jay... I didn't think he really had a chance after Takeover
:laugh: :laugh: someone has to have this version somewhere.

anyway, I was watching this beef for a while before even takeover. the stillmatic freestyles and what not. To me it was amazin how everybody was on the same page when Ether dropped.

Nas delivery was inspired compared to some of the stuff that was out before Stillmatic. It was just a powerful track all around.

AskariSTL//So

12-04-07, 11:44 AM

Ghost of Rock Hudson
Now, did Nas mean Rockefeller as in John D. or me as in Rock-a-fella. And if so, why? I have no beef with God’s Son.
http://fiyastarter.com/fs-gfx/etherdayo6/fs-etherday-rock.GIF
:D

Put it together...

The first time I heard it I was yawning at the first verse, it was OK but the version I had first had KAY SLAY ****ing YELLING OVER THE GOOD PARTS like usual (I hated Slay for a hot minute... say DAAAAM after the line is finished and the rapper gets his breath so we can HEAR it TOO fam) so I was sitting kinda waiting to be impressed. But as soon as I heard:

"With whiskers like a rat compared to Beans you wack"

I focused in because that one stuck, and stuck hard. I dont even think Beans is seeing Jay like that really but it just had a grain of truth to it because alot of cats were sorta thinking that way at the time. After that it didnt let up, it was just like an afterthought when he mentioned him biting BIG, he was saying all the things you knew someone with nothing to lose would bring up. "Takeover" was so true, like a fan criticizing Nas's moves in the game. "Ether" was just the way you would imagine Jay being clowned in real life by the dude that sat in front of him in Science class. Just raw and unexpectedly street from a dude like Nas I knew for keeping it cerebral.

PeterVankmen

12-04-07, 12:27 PM

WOW, the 1 star hurts.

I mean I am on Jay-Z's side:rolleyes:.

Tech Quadafi

12-04-07, 12:28 PM

i had written nas off. i thought jay z got him. then i heard that nas was droppin a comeback but i wasnt thinking nothing of it

came online, forget which site. saw the link, bumped it out of curiosity.

i ended up listening to it for an hour and a half straight. the next day in school , everyone was talking about it. that **** was gettin bumped out of cars for the christmas holidays

Just BlackAf

12-04-07, 01:09 PM

Yoda3542

12-04-07, 01:14 PM

damn, what did yall do write about it in your journals when you first heard it?

.PK5

12-04-07, 01:27 PM

One cold December 4th evening. I was a senior in high school. THe football season had just come to a dissapointing end. That night we had to return all our pads. I was feeling low...until I turned on the radio on the ride home. The DJ's kept saying Nas has a special birthday present for Jay Z. I listend to the radio all night and heard the song about 6 or 7 times. The rest is history...such vicious blows line after line. It was pure Ether...
:yes: ...that sounds about right. The assault just wouldnt stop.
It like when a person is upset with someone else and they just plain
out...uhh..uhh...ETHER that person.

theres no other word for it.

1stCome

12-04-07, 01:29 PM

damn, what did yall do write about it in your journals when you first heard it?

i know i did!

westkoast2k2

12-04-07, 01:41 PM

First time I heard Ether I thought

"Wow Nas really sat and studied The Blueprint album because he has references from a bunch of different songs. This really isn't as good as The Takeover"

And that is me being honest, not trying to go against the grain, I didn't really feel the diss track like that.

jayshiggs

12-04-07, 01:43 PM

First time I heard Ether I thought
"Wow Nas really sat and studied The Blueprint album because he has references from a bunch of different songs. This really isn't as good as The Takeover"
And that is me being honest, not trying to go against the grain, I didn't really feel the diss track like that.

No doubt, only 1 person's reaction really mattered anyway. lol

The Nastiest

12-04-07, 01:45 PM

damn, what did yall do write about it in your journals when you first heard it?
nah, it's this thing called a memory. most people have it, some people lose it. some people remember certain things, others don't

westkoast2k2

12-04-07, 01:47 PM

No doubt, only 1 person's reaction really mattered anyway. lol

Exactly and at the end of the day Ether is better then Takeover because the people have spoken regardless of what I thought. I was just being honest since I know so many people were going to come into this thread and lie to make sure they looked hip hop by going with the popular opinion.

Rakim23

12-04-07, 01:47 PM

Damn I didn't know ether had such a impact on people to remember what you was doing when you first heard it

it is a classic diss tho good thread :smoker:

westkoast2k2

12-04-07, 01:48 PM

I was wondering why there were so many Nas/Ether/Jay-z threads today until I realized what today was :laugh:

Only Built 4 AZ Linx

12-04-07, 01:49 PM

I was at my friend's house, he bumped it for me.

We looked straight at eachother and said "Nas won".

True Story.

EVIL

12-04-07, 01:53 PM

i waited for the wherehouse to open so i sat in the car 10 minutes before the place opened up.got the album and was drivin home.my car had two 15 so my shyt was slappin hard! the intro comes on and im like "o.k this is cool" but them that "FUKK JAY Z" part comes on and my heart drops cause this was my whole reason for buyin the album to hear nas get back at jay. that song started playin and i had to park my car cause i was so amped!!!! i couldnt even make it home i sat there in my car and played ether about 10 times in a row before i could even drive again.

JUSE_HEDD

12-04-07, 01:55 PM

The first time I heard it...wel actually I didn't hear it first I read the lyrics from ohhla.com. I remember hearing Takeover and reading the quotable posted in The Source dissing Nas...I didn't care for Nas and thought the n!ggaz career was dead.

I heard Stillmatic freestyle and wasn't impressed...still in my mind...Jay-Z got him.

Then I see that Ether was released and someone posted the lyrics on Ohhla.com...I read the lyrics and that ALONE gave me chills and goosebumps...I HAD to tell my cousin who was an avid Jay-Z fan at the time....Nas got him.

Then I heard the actual song a week later and it convinced me to buy the CD...I was a Nas fan from then on.

houston911

12-04-07, 01:59 PM

I was in class (bs class all we did was play dominoes) and I seen ether on here. I played it and was like 'oh fukkkkkkk'

turned the speakers up and played it for the whole class and everybody was clowning jay. great day at school

Lord Mecca

12-04-07, 02:01 PM

I have the most touching story fukk y'all:

I'm in like grade 10-11 these times and I'm the only fukkin Nas fan in my high school. Takeover drops so everyone knows I'm the Nas fan so everyone in my ear like "yo your savior is overrrrrr! he's doneeeeee!" all that bullsh!t... I'm tellin them "YO YOU THINK ESCO IS GONNA TAKE THAT SH!T JUST WAIT JUST WAIT!"

So anyway every lunch pure hip-hop arguments pop off and after Takeover drops I'm the topic of scrutiny. Everyone is on Jay's dikk; but still I have some grin on my face cause I know my man Nas aint gonna take that lightly. So boom I go home now one night hop on some IM and my boy from school sends me a file right away and says "he did it, you're gonna love this".

I'm receiving the file in mad anticipation; I got that evil grin on my face. Finally receive it and its that bullsh!t ass worse ever quality Kay Slay mix... but I hear gunshots ringin then:

"FUKK JAY-Z!
What's up n!ggas!?"

After that I just went ape sh!t... it was the happiest moment of my life. The rest is history.

that_dozen

12-04-07, 02:05 PM

my brother had the bootleg. across the hall i heard the loud shout of "Fukk Jay-Z" and i wondered, who would so vehemently curse out Young Hov :confused: so i wandered over to his room, pushed the door open ever so gently and sat...and listened as my favorite (living) rapper tore that big lipped nygga to shreds. that song blew my mind with the number of quotables, me and my brother had that shyt on repeat, knew all the lyrics that same day.

my first ether moment is one of my favorite hip hop memories (plus then we listened to one mic which really made me :ohmy: )

Vincenzo_Corleone

12-04-07, 02:09 PM

The next week or so of radio on Hot 97 is some of the best ever. Nas w/ Fat Man Scoop, Nas and Jungle w. Flex The radio battle w/ Flex, Mr. Cee, Tim Westwood, Angie Mar and Fat Joe tallying the votes. Some other execs and Swizz beats came thru to. some people didn't want to believe Jigga was taking an L, big ups to Fat Joe cause he made sure ninjas kept it 100 and nothing funny style went down. He rode out for Nas. Angie and flex were trying to give Superugly props and everything but the fans calling in were just contradicting their assessments left and right. A lt of people didn't want to express their opinion cause they didn't want to burn any bridges. Shyt was surreal. And then finally Jigga man showing up to angie's show like a day after the radio battle. He was just hurt it was great.
Oh that weekend I went to the coliseum in Queens cause my boy's little bro wanted to get a link and bracelet before he went back to school. The mixtape booth had Ether on repeat all day! It was hilarious. Nas was the king of Queens that day.

I tried telling some other people in another thread - you had to be following this shyt to realize WHY Ether is the superior diss.

People can prefer Takeover, fine - but the main point of a diss song isn't to be a great song, it's to disrespect the shiznit out of your opponent. That's why KRS was so succesful - 'Bridge is Over' is 'technically' nothing special, but the way he rips into all of them line after line is what made it great.

Ether had a dozen Bkgiggles calling up radiostations crying about why they were playing Ether after everything Jay had done for them :laugh:

The effect is what makes Ether superior, the Japs were much better and smarter fighters than the West and the US but once those atom bombs dropped it was OVER - that's what Ether did.

It wasn't trying to be cute, it was just meant to hurt and to destroy.

The late great Pac said it perfectly - 'This ain't no freestyle battle all you niccaz gettin killed'.

That's what Nas did, fukk the style - he just went for the KO.