Smiling in my face, glad to break bread with the god
Wearing Jaz chains, no Tecs, no cash, no cars

from Nas – Ether Lyrics on Rap Genius

Jay-Z had no money: he was wearing Jaz-O’s chain (a sign of subservience), didn’t have any Tec-9 guns or fancy things

Back then, Jay was just happy to get to grab a meal with Nas (who, having hung around Five Percenters, refers to himself as “the god”)

This also refers to Jay-Z’s claim in “Takeover” that Jay-Z showed Nas the first Tec he had ever seen while on tour with Large Professor. Here, Nas rejects that contention as, when Jay-Z was coming up, he had no chains of his own, no cash, no cars, and no Tecs to speak of.

However, Large Professor has claimed that there was an incident on tour in which Jay-Z, in the presence of Nas, pulled a Tec-9 out of a duffle bag for protection against a rowdy Washington DC crowd.

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