"Ether" also known as "Ether (Fuck Jay-Z)"is the 2nd track on hip hop artist Nas' 2001 album Stillmatic. The song was a response to Jay-Z's "Takeover" - a diss from that rapper towards Nas which appears on Jay-Z's album The Blueprint. Although many critics had believed "Takeover" to be Nas' wake up call in light of his less-celebrated post-Illmatic career, "Ether" effectively ended the battle between him and Jay-Z, winning the majority of votes by callers in a radio poll , and proclaiming Nas the victor. But in XXL Magazine, "Ether" ranked #4 on it's greatest diss songs of all time,http://www.xxlmag.com/mb/index.php?showtopic=21402 while "Takeover" ranks #3.
The word "ether" subsequently entered the hip hop lexicon as a term for a devastating diss, or an irreversible loss sustained during battle by an MC.
