Wait am I misremembering?
Jay did a partial freestyle of The Takeover at Summer Jam 2001 and then the full version came out in September on the Blueprint.
Didn't Ether drop in December of that year?
Jay-Z did the first verse of Takeover at Summer Jam eviscerating Prodigy and at the end said āASK NAS HE DONāT WANT IT WITH HOVā
Two weeks later Nas put out Stillmatic Freestyle
September 11, 2001, the day the Towers fell, Jay-Z put out The Blueprint with the full version of Takeover going at Nas.
Sometime between September and November The Source conducted an interview with Nas where he admitted that Jayās last lines in Takeover (You know who did you know what with you know who) were code for Jay sleeping with Nasās baby mother.
December 4th, Jay-Zās birthday, Nas releases Ether, the unofficial second single from his forthcoming album Stillmatic
48 Hours later Jay rush releases Supaugly to Hot 97
Thats the timeline