Rap's fighting words: rival stars Jay-Z and Nas revive the art of the hip-hop dis in an old-school feud that just may be about fun and profit. (arts).

"We're gonna keep it in the truest essence of hip-hop: the battle," said Jay-Z, the lanky rapper, during a recent MTV Unplugged concert. Then he launched into "Takeover," his scathing lyrical assault on fellow rapper Nas.

"That's why your l-a-a-a-m-e!--career's come to a end/There's only so long fake thugs can pretend," Jay-Z rapped, as the audience laughed and sang along.

In a time when real-life war in Afghanistan has made much of the violence in the entertainment industry seem like quaint posturing, hip-hop--a musical genre struggling to remain relevant--has returned to its roots with an old-fashioned, insult-laden feud. Some skeptics say the war between Jay-Z and Nas is just an attempt by both artists to put money into each other's pockets by selling more CDs.

Their battle comes as hip-hop CD sales are being overshadowed by rock acts like Staind and Linkin Park (see "Tuning Out?" page 7). Hip-hop's teen audience seems finally to be tiring of the sameness of "bling-bling" songs and videos--hedonistic displays of diamond jewelry, chrome-rimmed cars, and shimmying girls in bikinis.

Jay-Z and Nas are mixing it up, literally. These two up-from-the-projects multimillionaires, once fast friends, now appear to be bitter rivals. Jay-Z, born Shawn Carter, has reigned as the dominant figure in hip-hop for years; four of his six albums have had their debut at No. 1 on the Billboard charts. He doubted that anyone would have the courage to come back at him. "Ask Nas, he don't want it with [me]!" shouts Jay-Z on "Takeover," released in September.

But Nas did indeed "want it." The highly respected rapper, born Nasir Jones, came back with a one-two combination: first, a parody recording of Jay-Z's hit "Izzo," and then a harsh rebuttal called "Ether," on his album, Stillmatic, which hit stores in December.

In "Ether," Nas accuses Jay-Z of plagiarizing Notorious B.I.G., the dead rap star who was also known as Biggie Smalls: "How much of Biggie's rhymes is gonna come out your fat lips?"

Nas even engages in some armchair psychoanalysis: "You seem to be only concerned with dissin' women/Were you abused as a child, scared to smile, they called you ugly?"

Talking about "Ether" and targeting Jay-Z, Nas says, "I just wanted to affect him with my weapon and get to his soul."

Almost overnight, the hip-hop world has become transfixed by the battle. Nas's Stillmatic debuted at No. 8 on the Soundscan sales chart, ahead of Jay-Z's MTV Unplugged album at No. 34. On Web sites crowded with fan postings, boosters of Jay-Z or Nas parsed every line like English majors, debating each rapper's use of puns and metaphors.

To outsiders, the public slagging might seem childish, but rap fans know it as part of a venerable history. Verbal one-upmanship is part of an African-American tradition, from the taunting game known as "the dozens," to the trash talk of street basketball, to the verbal jabs that boxer Muhammad Ali used to throw.

Since hip-hop's origins in the New York borough of the Bronx in the 1970s, going mano a mano--whether rhyming, DJ-ing, or break dancing --has been an essential aspect of the music. "Back in the day, everyone was battling, but it wasn't so personal," says Sal Abbatiello, who owned a legendary nightclub, Disco Fever, in the Bronx. "It was just about who's the greatest rapper."

AVOIDING A DEADLY HISTORY

The tensions in the verbal back-and-forth escalated out of control in the mid-'90s, when the two highest-profile rappers of the day, Tupac Shakur and the Notorious B.I.G., traded biting insults. Shakur released a song called "Hit `Em Up"--more primal scream than battle rap--in which he profanely. boasted that he'd had an affair with Biggie's wife, the singer Faith Evans. Amid the rap war, both Shakur and Biggie ended up murdered in drive-by shootings; the cases are still unsolved.

So far, Jay-Z and Nas have stressed that theirs is strictly a staged war of words. With Jay-Z's growing success, a backlash may have been inevitable; Nas is just giving it a face--and lyrics. Jay-Z now oversees a sprawling empire that encompasses music, film, and a successful hip-hop clothing line. "I'm only worth over a hundred million," he raps.

"That's what I don't understand--how this brother's head must have been so gassed up," Nas says. "He of all people should know, once you're on top for too long, the people can't wait to turn on you."