Ok, let me give my take on this.
I want to say up front, Ether was a KO blow in the beef. That was the end of it really. Reasons you might ask, well.
Many say that Takeover was more factual than Ether, but was it really though? On the balance of available evidence both rappers 'stretch' the truth a bit. But let's break it down on a few facts:
Takeover;
-'You's the fag model for Karl Kani Esco ads' Fact.
-'Went from Nasty Nas to Esco's trash
Had a spark when you started but now you're just garbage
Fell from "top 10" to "not mentioned at all"
To your bodyguard's "Oochie Wally"'s verse better than yours
Matter of fact you had the worst flow on the whole fecking song'
This whole section is opinion not fact. Sure Nas' career had taken a bit of slump but Nastradamus still went platinum so to say he went to 'not mentioned at all' is inaccurate plus the very fact that Jay's dissing shows his relevance.
-'One hot album every 10 years'; That's not really a fact is it? Jay was clever to use Nas' faltering career to create an illusion that Nas only made one hot album until that point. It was written was another classic, sure, not on Illmatic level (what else is on that level anyway?) but it was a classic in it's own right
-'I showed you your first Tec, on tour with Large Professor
Then I heard your album about your Tec on the dresser' Fact. Well at least part of it. Jay did pull a Tec on tour with Large Pro (LP confirmed it) but it's conjecture whether this was Nas' 1st viewing of a Tec but well used by Jay here.
-'You made it a hot line, I made it a hot song'; Jay actually contradicts himself since he himself stated illmatic was a classic and to suggest his song was hotter is opinion not fact. In fact, I'd wager if you play the two tracks at a hip hop party you'd get a bigger reaction for The world is yours.
-'And you ain't get a coin, nigga, you was getting fecked then
I know who I paid, God - Serchlite publishing'; This has since turned out to be a lie. MC Serch himself said Nas owned the publishing himself. It was a clever way of making it seem as if he got Nas.
Now those are some of the 'best' lines in Takeover yet I've just shown that the so called 'factual' basis is meh at best. Hence, me saying both reached a bit.
Ether;
-'With Hawaiian Sophie fame, kept my name in his music' Fact. Jay came onto the rap scene with Jaz O in Hawain Sophie music video and add to that, Jay mentioned Nas in EVERY single album up until Blueprint.
-'And his manuscript just sound stupid
When KRS already made an album called Blueprint' Fact.
-'First Biggie's your man, Then you got the nerve to say that you better than Big' Fact.
-'You seem to be only concerned with dissing women, Were you abused as a child, scared to smile, they called you ugly' Hypocritical from Nas but factual. Look at Jay's discography and see his attitude toward women. Also, Jay himself admitted he only got girls because he's famous because they used to call him ugly when he was younger.
-'I still whip your ass, you thirty-six in a karate class
You Tae-bo ho, tryna' work it out, you tryna' get brolic' Fact. Jay himself admitted he did Tae-bo.
-'Rocafella died of AIDS, that was the end of his chapter
And that's the guy y'all chose to name your company after?' Every one assumes this is a reference to the well known Rockefellers but it's not. It's a reference to a druglord that Jaz O referred to on his song 'Love is gone'.
-'You ass, went from Jaz to hanging with Kane, to Irv, to Big, And Eminem murdered you on your own shit' Fact first line. 2nd line opinion but just like Jay in Takeover, cleverly used.
So from the above it's clear that both songs had facts and both stretched it at times. In fact the so called facts (one of the 'strong' points of Takeover) on Takeover weren't even factual.
Now the way I see it, Takeover and Jay's overall attack point was to assassinate Nas' credentials based on 'facts' and 'events'. He failed at this in my opinion as most of his facts were opinion. Ether however, if you go listen to it again, was not meant to focus on facts but rather it was a psychological attack on Jay's ego which is Jay's biggest 'weapon' and 'flaw'. This is evident by how broken Jay Z sounds on Hot 97 and then the fact that he was so desperate to drop Supa Ugly, add to that he kept the 'beef' going all by himself on Blueprint 2 on which he admitted defeat himself. 'For even in defeat there's lesson to learn so it evens it out for me'
So Ether ended the battle in my opinion. Nas moved the goal posts by going after Jay's very soul, his ego. Hence the gay references, also hence the 'your my child' kind of tone of Ether.
