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In the final portion of a three-part interview with The Combat Jack Show, former Main Source front man Large Professor revealed that Nas held back on his lyrical assault on Jay-Z, “Ether.”

Jay came out swinging with the Kanye West-produced “Takeover” diss track in 2001, and many thought Nas’ (and Prodigy of Mobb Deep) would never recover. Nas gamely responded with “Ether” amid still-ongoing debates over which rapper triumphed.

Sitting behind the scenes in the sessions, Extra P said that Nas initially went harder on an early draft of the song, but decided on a different route.

“The first beat he wrote to was a Swizz Beatz beat and it was a lot more energy, and a lot more hype,” said Large Pro. “What Nas did, he took the whole situation to the hill in Queensbridge. And if you ever go to Queensbridge on the hill, what they do is everyone stands around and they just snap [crack jokes] on each other.”

Large Professor added that Nas “watered down” the lyrics, saying that he “really took him to the hill” in the earlier version.  Although he sided with his fellow Queens native in the clash, Large Pro admitted that he enjoyed “Takeover” as well.

Check out the Large Professor interview with The Combat Jack Show below.

http://player.ooyala.com/iframe.js#ec=tndDkwYzqdG8DWIj0S7i3sDyOp87h20m&pbid=556f8260656c47a4ab49bf6f2dde85f3

Photo: Complex