That gif of the beating of the dead horse is hilarious and pretty much sums this whole thing up...
BUT, while we're on the topic...a few things that no one has mentioned...first, the version of Ether that we know of is the dumb-downed version of the song. Remember, this Ether was like the 5th recording of it because the label rejected all the previous recordings of it because they said it was too harsh. And Nas destroyed all of those previous versions to prevent them from EVER leaking. That's some serious **** right there...who knows what those originals had on them, but lets not act like Jay wasn't d-riding Nas from 91-98 (TWO samples on In My Lifetime Vol 1).
Also...Yes, I get it...Jay pounded Carmen...we all know that...But Nas BEEN told the world that home girl was pretty much a groupie...whether it's the intro to Black Girl Lost or on "One Mic" ("******* left me cause they thought I was finished. Shoulda knew she wasn't true she came to me when her man caught a sentence"). Plus, it wasn't all fun and games when Jay got Carmen pregnant...Carmen had a miscarriage and so Jay was off the hook, but I hope yall didn't forget that "plus I'm having a child, which is more frightening"...that was a child with Carmen)
I'm not even about to compare Nas's career with Jay-Z's career...that isn't a fair fight. Obviously. BUT, I will say that Jay's quality of music has been in SHARP decline since the Black Album (American Gangster was good, though), but Nas seems to have finally become comfortable with doing the music he wants to do, not the music that will sell millions of copies. and THAT is the reason I prefer Nas to Jay.