The Nas and JAY-Z beef is quite possibly the apex of rap beef. To this day there are still heated debates over who got bodied. Most recently, Cam'ron spoke about the beef during his appearance on ESPN's Highly Questionable with Dan LeBatard. Cam thought that Nas won the battle but that Hov eventually won the war. Others believe JAY-Z got Nas with "Takeover" and "Supa Ugly." But there are few fans that will deny the all-out assault that was "Ether." However, Nas's former manager and entertainment/branding mogul Steve Stoute revealed that the original version of that classic diss track was terrible.
Stoute spoke with N.O.R.E. and DJ EFN on Drink Champs and spoke about the Hov-Nas beef. He recalled being beyond nervous when Jay dropped "Takeover," admitting "I was nervous, I thought Nas' career was over." Stoute then said that he gave Nas the beat that was used for "Ether" but he wasn't feeling it. To compound issues, Stoute and Nas had a small falling out during the time leading Nas to only let Stoute hear Stillmatic a day before mastering.
"He calls me in, the album is about to go to mastering and I go to the studio and he plays me Ether. It's like 2 in morning. And he uses that beat, [...] The fact that he called me to the studio the night before mastering was because he wanted me to hear, like 'Did I go too far? Is this fucked up?"
Stoute said that "This is a mess. If this shit comes out, your career is over." He continued, "And he made the record. But there was a different version with the same beat that was terrible, it was horrible. And like, it was the proper response for what he was in."
Check out the full story at the 41:30 mark in the video above.
Source: hotnewhiphop.com
