who is really better, jay-z or nas?

I take this back to 2002, when i was in my first year in the university. It was the heights of the beef/feud (between jay-z and nas), and people were picking sides. I was on nas's side, but it was like they were very few of my kind, because we all know a lot more people liked JAY-Z than NAS.

There were arguments on every corner of the campus; i really had not seen anything like that before, even with the BIGGIE and TUPAC feud, it wasn't really like that, maybe not in Nigeria, where i am from. Or maybe it was because pac and big lost their lives too early in the feud. Anyway, it was just incredible, you would see about 5 guys arguing with like 8 guys on who is better, and it would get emotional, and fights sometimes broke out.

I remember one time when i went to visit my friend, and i met some of his other friends there, and it happened that they were all jay fans; men, was that a hell of an argument. We argued for about 2 hours. They laid down their facts, i laid down mine, and in the end, became friends, and started seeing things from a different perspective. I saw the reason why they thought jay-z was a better rapper than nas, and i made them also see the reason why i thought nas was a better rapper. We went our separate ways, but the argument had left a mark, and we became curious of what we had shared on that  day. I started listening to jay in the process and they also started listening to nas.

Through the years, i bought all of jay's albums at one point or the other, and i can say i have listened to every album (solo and collaborative) that he has dropped, so i know what he is made of. I can not doubt that he is a very gifted/talented/skilled rapper, and has gotten better with time, to the point where he can do it(rap) in his sleep; but so can nas. But the problem people have with this argument is with comparing the two rappers; they are not the same. Jay is more of a flossy rapper, nas is a knowledge delivering, story telling rapper; they have different missions in life. And like M.I.A(the srilankan singer) said in a recent interview, just because nas is not the private plane flying rapper does not make jay-z better than him. I would like to add, just because jay-z does not kick knowledge(he does, but not like nas) in his rhymes don't make him any less better than nas.

I think i would end by quoting some of nas's lines on ether, where he said, who's the best, pac nas or big? ain't no best; so i would say there is no best between nas and jay-z, but i can say they are both individually better than every other rap out right now; probably except for eminem. Well, that is my opinion, so i would appreciate yours.