On at the present time in 2001, the self-crowned “King of New York” launched his fifth studio LP, Stillmatic. Throughout Nas’s musical absence the facility in New York had shifted and Jay-Z had stepped up and eclipsed Nas as the very best MC in New York. The title itself exhibits that Nas had a chip on his shoulder and used this album to indicate the world who was STILL the very best rapper alive out of the 5 boroughs.

Nas and Jay-Z have been within the midst of one of many largest feuds in rap. With this being the theme of the time, the lyrics of this album carried a malicious taste. This new facet to Nas’ sound is most distinguished on the monitor Ether that is without doubt one of the most simple diss tracks in rap. The disrespect that was placed on on this report makes the Drake/Meek Mill battle appear to be a childhood dispute. All through the album Nas continues to showcase his no-holds-barred fashion of lyricism, dropping names of these he feels have disrespected him left and proper and setting information straight about his spot in Hip Hop. With each bar, you may really feel Nas attacking the sport and ensuring his place is felt by everybody listening. This album can also be loads much less overtly righteous than his earlier work. Nas is a righteous particular person so there’ll at all times be undertones of positivity in his work, however on this album, the main target was on the chilly and darker facet to Hip Hop and New York Metropolis generally.

Launched on Columbia Information, the album debuted at #8 on the Billboard 200 chart and bought 342,600 albums in its first week. Inside a month, the album claimed the #5 spot and was licensed platinum on January 16, 2002. By July 2008, the album had bought 2,026,000 copies. This “comeback” album acquired majority optimistic evaluations from critics. Nas was praised by critics from Rolling Stone, AllMusic and The Supply, who gave this album the coveted 5 Mics.